Hello everyone, I'm new to this site and i started rooting not to long ago so i guess I'm a little bit higher than noob level but here's the thing, I did not do my research prior to updating my S3 to 4.3 via OTA update. I was already rooted with 4.1.2 so when i updated I thought i would just remove the root which it did but super user was still on my phone. I was only given the option to "turn off" (new feature of 4.3) and me being OCD about my phone I didn't like that. So I tried to use odin to go back to stock 4.1.1 thinking I could Just upgrade back and I was denied. I did some research discovering that I cannot do that because I was already on 4.3. Later on I found out it was possible to re-root 4.3 which is in the general forums. So I did that and removed knox with the "DeSamsungnizer" and tried downgrading to a custom firmware Cyanogenmod 10.1 based on 4.2.2 to be exact but I was denied again on the Clockworkmod recovery screen (also tripping the warranty counter). So since that didnt work I thought why not upgrade to the the cyanogenmod 10.2 based on 4.3 and that DID work... so i tried to odin back to 4.1.1 on cyanogenmod since i've done it before but again I was denied.. doing more research I discovered that andriod 4.3 came with a new bootloader so today I tried going back to 4.1.2 on my phone via one of my previous backups on CWM and it worked, once again, I tried to odin back down to stock 4.1.1 thinking I restored the old bootloader which I was finally denied again. So now I'm here, sitting on the rooted 4.3 with a locked bootloader and tripped warranty counter. So now youve heard my story, you are probably wondering why I'm here telling you all this, here's my question.
Is there any way I can downgrade this locked bootloader or unlock the bootloader itself that comes with 4.3 so I can finally get rid of the root, restore my warranty and go back to the experience had when I first bought the phone? honestly, I'm ready to retire from rooting, ive seen all the bells and whistles, tried custom firmwares, used rooted apps and all that, but now, I just dont care for it anymore. If there is no way to fix this problem currently, which a lot of those might have ran into as well is there any news of developers working on a fix for this? If there is I would like this forum to be the central discussion thread for our 4.3 bootloader issues. Thanks for reading! I hope someone can help!
bcjay16 said:
Hello everyone, I'm new to this site and i started rooting not to long ago so i guess I'm a little bit higher than noob level but here's the thing, I did not do my research prior to updating my S3 to 4.3 via OTA update. I was already rooted with 4.1.2 so when i updated I thought i would just remove the root which it did but super user was still on my phone. I was only given the option to "turn off" (new feature of 4.3) and me being OCD about my phone I didn't like that. So I tried to use odin to go back to stock 4.1.1 thinking I could Just upgrade back and I was denied. I did some research discovering that I cannot do that because I was already on 4.3. Later on I found out it was possible to re-root 4.3 which is in the general forums. So I did that and removed knox with the "DeSamsungnizer" and tried downgrading to a custom firmware Cyanogenmod 10.1 based on 4.2.2 to be exact but I was denied again on the Clockworkmod recovery screen (also tripping the warranty counter). So since that didnt work I thought why not upgrade to the the cyanogenmod 10.2 based on 4.3 and that DID work... so i tried to odin back to 4.1.1 on cyanogenmod since i've done it before but again I was denied.. doing more research I discovered that andriod 4.3 came with a new bootloader so today I tried going back to 4.1.2 on my phone via one of my previous backups on CWM and it worked, once again, I tried to odin back down to stock 4.1.1 thinking I restored the old bootloader which I was finally denied again. So now I'm here, sitting on the rooted 4.3 with a locked bootloader and tripped warranty counter. So now youve heard my story, you are probably wondering why I'm here telling you all this, here's my question.
Is there any way I can downgrade this locked bootloader or unlock the bootloader itself that comes with 4.3 so I can finally get rid of the root, restore my warranty and go back to the experience had when I first bought the phone? honestly, I'm ready to retire from rooting, ive seen all the bells and whistles, tried custom firmwares, used rooted apps and all that, but now, I just dont care for it anymore. If there is no way to fix this problem currently, which a lot of those might have ran into as well is there any news of developers working on a fix for this? If there is I would like this forum to be the central discussion thread for our 4.3 bootloader issues. Thanks for reading! I hope someone can help!
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Click to collapse
Short answer NO. no you can not, you upgraded to the 4.3 bootloaders you're now stuck there, make the most out of it, I have hard bricked my phone 3 times in the last week trying to get back to an older version. Good luck.
So I rooted my phone using the method outlined in this thread here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1771687
I used odin to flash the 4.1.2 T-Mobile image and I stopped at the part that said "If you just want a stock, rooted phone with no custom recovery, no plans to flash custom roms, etc. then you can stop HERE" because I only wanted root so I could fix the keyboard bug (keyboard would revert to stock one after resets).
So my question is, can I update to 4.3 via the OTA update that is in the About Device > Software Update section in the phone? Looking elsewhere the official instructions say that the phone should not be rooted before updating. If so, can I get rid of the root in order to update? (As far as I know, the keyboard bug doesn't exist in 4.3 anyway so I don't think I need the root anymore). If not, how can I update to 4.3?
Lastly, and somewhat unrelated, can I use the factory data reset in the Back up and reset section of the settings? Previously in my experience with roms, this would lead to a boot loop but I'm not sure if that is the case with this so-called rooted stock rom.
Thanks in advance.
You can use OTA RootKeeper to temporarily disable Root so that you will receive the update. Or you could also visit the Root66 thread you have linked. There you will see Rooted version of the 4.3 update.
Having said that, You will want to Research the consequences of the 4.3 Stock update. In particular you wish to research the consequences of CIQ, KNOX and the new EFuse Bootloader.
I am by no means an expert but I figure I just did this so it may help you out. I updated my phone to 4.3 accidentally on purpose and then I decided to root my phone like the next day. I used Mr Robinson's method and then used his third method to download the ROM manager and install CWM Recovery and then I put Cyanogen on it. I have not had any issues except the app Trailer Addict doesn't work with it but that is not a big issue. I have everything else that I wanted and more. I don't care about the flash counter since I am not under warranty. Oh and you can use Titanium Backup to back up your apps. I didn't do this the first time so I had to back up from Kies 3 by dragging files onto my SD card and not all worked. I hope I helped a little.
I rooted this phone way back when Chainfire first posted this thread. I used "Option 2" , so I just did a quick root, with no Custom recovery or flashing a rom.
Since then, I've been relying mostly on Xposed for tweaking, hibernating and locking it down with Xprivacy. My Note 2 actually works pretty good, and I got it all set up perfectly, but I'm bored
I just recently flashed the latest 4.4.4 Cyanogen on my old SGS4G and was really impressed with the new life my old phone has. I was also impressed with how easy it was to flash a new rom with CWM( I previously had Barebones rom on it, using Heimdall)
Anyways, I kind of want to update this Note 2, but where to start? What's the latest way to install CWM, or should I go with TWRP? Are there any good kit kat roms available for our Note 2? Or should I stay at stock 4.1.1?
It's been a long time since I've been on XDA, and I'm trying to whack through all the threads for info regarding my specific situation. Most everything seems to start at rooting 4.3, or flashing via Custom recovery.
I had 5.1.1 installed. Couldn't get KingRoot to give temp root (lots of people say you can only do it on 4.4.4, lots of other people say they got it to work on 5.1.1 if you read around).
So I tried downgrading to 4.4.4. Odin failed every time.
So I tried downgrading to 5.0.1. That worked. But kingroot still was unable to get root.
I then found King O Root. Tried that once, no luck. Tried it a 2nd time, and success. I then ran the samsund_fix file. And it changed my CID.
But then you have to restart the phone and run the fix file again.
I have run king o root (and tried kingroot) each at least 30 times now. And I can't get either to give me root access again. I've even tried the desktop version of king o root. Nothing.
I'm SOOO close I feel. But I can't get that last step. Its killing me.
Can anyone help with where to go next?
I figure either 1) I have to find a way to get temporary root one more time. OR 2) find a way to get down to kitkat 4.4.4 to get temporary root.
One other quick question, is the reason I can't get to 4.4.4 because I upgraded all the way to 5.1.1? EVERYTHING I read says 'yeah you can downgrade' but mine won't downgrade. Odin fails with an error So how do I get to 4.4.4? Am I just screwed?
NAND Write Start!
boot.img
FAIL! (Auth)
Are you sure you have to push the file again?
Sometimes it doesn't take and you need to push it again. The last couple of times I unlocked it went on the first try. Go into download mode and see if it says "developer mode."
I was able to unlock on 5.1.1. Kingroot and Kingoroot are extremely unstable besides being Chinese software with all of the risks that entails. There is supposedly a PC version of one of them (shudder) that is allegedly a bit more stable.
Where are you getting the firmware you're trying to use to downgrade?
douger1957 said:
Are you sure you have to push the file again?
Sometimes it doesn't take and you need to push it again. The last couple of times I unlocked it went on the first try. Go into download mode and see if it says "developer mode."
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Click to collapse
So I'm not 100% sure I have to push the file again. I know when I ran the fix file in adb shell the first time, it said I have to run the fix script again. And then when I boot into download mode, I see nothing that says "developer mode".
But, on the other hand. When I check with the eMMC Brickbug checker thing. That says the CID did change according to what the samsung_fix script said it changed it to.
So I *think* the CID changed? But I don't have developer mode. So I think I need to run the fix script again to finish the job.
douger1957 said:
I was able to unlock on 5.1.1. Kingroot and Kingoroot are extremely unstable besides being Chinese software with all of the risks that entails. There is supposedly a PC version of one of them (shudder) that is allegedly a bit more stable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually tried a PC version of kingoroot. It also failed numerous times.
douger1957 said:
Where are you getting the firmware you're trying to use to downgrade?
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Click to collapse
I'm getting it from androidfilehost.
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=search&s=n910v
That's where I got the 5.0.1 version that worked when I went from 5.1.1 to 5.0.1. But I guess I could try finding a 4.4.4 version from somewhere else. I don't know where though.
It passes md5 check in odin. Though I'm not sure that means much.
nertskull said:
So I'm not 100% sure I have to push the file again. I know when I ran the fix file in adb shell the first time, it said I have to run the fix script again. And then when I boot into download mode, I see nothing that says "developer mode".
But, on the other hand. When I check with the eMMC Brickbug checker thing. That says the CID did change according to what the samsung_fix script said it changed it to.
So I *think* the CID changed? But I don't have developer mode. So I think I need to run the fix script again to finish the job.
I actually tried a PC version of kingoroot. It also failed numerous times.
I'm getting it from androidfilehost.
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=search&s=n910v
That's where I got the 5.0.1 version that worked when I went from 5.1.1 to 5.0.1. But I guess I could try finding a 4.4.4 version from somewhere else. I don't know where though.
It passes md5 check in odin. Though I'm not sure that means much.
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Click to collapse
This may be your problem. I don't think you can flash a rooted ROM with a locked bootloader with success. Try this one. (Thanks, @hsbadr!) It's the OEM firmware. This will mean that you'll need to start from scratch. I should note that another poster has had trouble flashing this firmware although other posters including myself have used it successfully.
@hsbadr has a repository of firmwares. What you're looking for is the full firmware. Sammobile is another source of firmware, but they're terribly slow to download from.
douger1957 said:
This may be your problem. I don't think you can flash a rooted ROM with a locked bootloader with success. Try this one. (Thanks, @hsbadr!) It's the OEM firmware. This will mean that you'll need to start from scratch. I should note that another poster has had trouble flashing this firmware although other posters including myself have used it successfully.
@hsbadr has a repository of firmwares. What you're looking for is the full firmware. Sammobile is another source of firmware, but they're terribly slow to download from.
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Click to collapse
I tried that firmware you linked to. That took me back to 5.1.1. I tried kingroot and kingoroot, and still no luck. After 8 or 9 tries each, I still can't get temproot.
I thought it would be better to go back to 4.4.4, and looked through hsbadr's list of roms you linked me to. I tried both of the 4.4.4 full firmwares (NJ5 and NI1) and both fail on odin.
It would seem to me I'm never getting back to 4.4.4/kitkat am I?
Should I just keep running kingroot/kingoroot until I can get temp root? I ran kingoroot at least 30 times last night on 5.0.1 and never got root again. I really don't understand why I could get it once but never again.
Should I try running it a million times on 5.1.1 where I now am again? Or should I go back to 5.0.1? Is there any other way to get temporary root?
nertskull said:
I tried that firmware you linked to. That took me back to 5.1.1. I tried kingroot and kingoroot, and still no luck. After 8 or 9 tries each, I still can't get temproot.
I thought it would be better to go back to 4.4.4, and looked through hsbadr's list of roms you linked me to. I tried both of the 4.4.4 full firmwares (NJ5 and NI1) and both fail on odin.
It would seem to me I'm never getting back to 4.4.4/kitkat am I?
Should I just keep running kingroot/kingoroot until I can get temp root? I ran kingoroot at least 30 times last night on 5.0.1 and never got root again. I really don't understand why I could get it once but never again.
Should I try running it a million times on 5.1.1 where I now am again? Or should I go back to 5.0.1? Is there any other way to get temporary root?
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Click to collapse
I was able to unlock my bootloader twice on 5.1.1. I used Kingroot to unlock Lollipop and Kingoroot to unlock Marshmallow. See if you can find an older version of either root methods. I think I remember reading somewhere that the newer version is flakier than the older stuff. I'm fairly convinced that the rooted ROM you flashed is part of the problem.
As I said, Kingroot and Kingoroot are highly unstable. You may need to spend quite a bit of time in multiple attempts. It comes down to how badly do you want root?
douger1957 said:
I was able to unlock my bootloader twice on 5.1.1. I used Kingroot to unlock Lollipop and Kingoroot to unlock Marshmallow. See if you can find an older version of either root methods. I think I remember reading somewhere that the newer version is flakier than the older stuff. I'm fairly convinced that the rooted ROM you flashed is part of the problem.
As I said, Kingroot and Kingoroot are highly unstable. You may need to spend quite a bit of time in multiple attempts. It comes down to how badly do you want root?
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Click to collapse
Holy success. I have no idea why. But after rebooting the phone for the umpteenth time and running kingoroot another 20 times. It finally gave me another successful temp root, this time while on 5.1.1.
I ran the script again, and now when I got into download mode, I have Mode: Developer showing. Hooray.
BUT....then bootloops. I couldn't get it started.
I then accidentally wiped everything, completely wiped. No operating system according to twrp.
So I looked around, and it appears JasmineRom and CM13 by hsbadr are mentioned as good custom ROMs. So I grabbed CM13, used twrp to install it. And success. I have a working phone. At least, for the past couple minutes.
So a tremendous thank you for giving me some guidance.
I have two more questions for the moment though.
1) How easy/hard would it be to lose developer mode? Do I need to be careful about what roms I flash? Could I lose that? Or now that it is in developer mode, should I be pretty safe in that sticking around?
2) Can I try any Rom on it right now. There don't appear to be a lot of verizon note 4 specific roms around for this phone, because it hasn't had root for long. Will any of the other note 4 roms work? Or should I make sure to stick to only 'proven verizon' roms.
Thanks again for the help.
....
Oh, and how bad do I want root? Badly. Super badly. If I had the money I would have ditched this phone forever ago. I will never buy another phone again on the hope/promise that it will get root soon.
nertskull said:
Holy success. I have no idea why. But after rebooting the phone for the umpteenth time and running kingoroot another 20 times. It finally gave me another successful temp root, this time while on 5.1.1.
I ran the script again, and now when I got into download mode, I have Mode: Developer showing. Hooray.
BUT....then bootloops. I couldn't get it started.
I then accidentally wiped everything, completely wiped. No operating system according to twrp.
So I looked around, and it appears JasmineRom and CM13 by hsbadr are mentioned as good custom ROMs. So I grabbed CM13, used twrp to install it. And success. I have a working phone. At least, for the past couple minutes.
So a tremendous thank you for giving me some guidance.
I have two more questions for the moment though.
1) How easy/hard would it be to lose developer mode? Do I need to be careful about what roms I flash? Could I lose that? Or now that it is in developer mode, should I be pretty safe in that sticking around?
2) Can I try any Rom on it right now. There don't appear to be a lot of verizon note 4 specific roms around for this phone, because it hasn't had root for long. Will any of the other note 4 roms work? Or should I make sure to stick to only 'proven verizon' roms.
Thanks again for the help.
....
Oh, and how bad do I want root? Badly. Super badly. If I had the money I would have ditched this phone forever ago. I will never buy another phone again on the hope/promise that it will get root soon.
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Click to collapse
The only way I know to lock your bootloader is to flash an OEM firmware, take an OTA or mess with flashing bootloader without knowing what you're doing..
What you can flash depends upon which bootloader you have unlocked. Lollipop? You can flash a ROM based on a Lollipop bootloader. Jasmine 4.3 and CM 13 before 6/20 are Marshmallow ROMs based on Lollipop bootloaders. You can also run ROMs made for the N910F/G (also based on Lollipop bootloaders) if you use the proper data fix.
If you want to run a pure Marshmallow ROM, you need to do the unlock dance again. If you're interested in wifi calling, you'll need to stick with a fairly stock OEM ROM like Jasmine 6.0 or 7.0 (both versions are buried pretty deep in the thread) or PaulPizz which I haven't tried but hear good things about.
douger1957 said:
The only way I know to lock your bootloader is to flash an OEM firmware, take an OTA or mess with flashing bootloader without knowing what you're doing..
What you can flash depends upon which bootloader you have unlocked. Lollipop? You can flash a ROM based on a Lollipop bootloader. Jasmine 4.3 and CM 13 before 6/20 are Marshmallow ROMs based on Lollipop bootloaders. You can also run ROMs made for the N910F/G (also based on Lollipop bootloaders) if you use the proper data fix.
If you want to run a pure Marshmallow ROM, you need to do the unlock dance again. If you're interested in wifi calling, you'll need to stick with a fairly stock OEM ROM like Jasmine 6.0 or 7.0 (both versions are buried pretty deep in the thread) or PaulPizz which I haven't tried but hear good things about.
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Awesome. I downloaded CM13 from before the 20th and it seems to work great. I had to flash the CM13 rom and open GApps at the same time, otherwise the GApps kept crashing. But flashing them at the same time before turning on CM13 for the first time seemed to work.
Thanks for the help. Don't follow things closely enough to have known that I needed a pre 20th build.
Perhaps one more question.
Would you recommend taking the time to unlock the marshmallow bootloader? I don't need wifi calling. And I seem to be getting most of the benefits of 6.0.1 now even though using a lollipop bootloader.
I'm hesitant to try to unlock the marshmallow bootloader, because according to the instructions, it looks like I have to deal with kingroot/kingoroot again to do it. And I had such a hard time getting those to work this first time (easily 80+ tries running kingoroot) before I got temproot, that I'm not sure I want to take the risk of doing it again.
In your opinion, is it worth the risk to unlock the marshmallow bootloader? Or is running marshmallow on the lollipop bootloader reasonable enough?
Thanks
nertskull said:
Awesome. I downloaded CM13 from before the 20th and it seems to work great. I had to flash the CM13 rom and open GApps at the same time, otherwise the GApps kept crashing. But flashing them at the same time before turning on CM13 for the first time seemed to work.
Thanks for the help. Don't follow things closely enough to have known that I needed a pre 20th build.
Perhaps one more question.
Would you recommend taking the time to unlock the marshmallow bootloader? I don't need wifi calling. And I seem to be getting most of the benefits of 6.0.1 now even though using a lollipop bootloader.
I'm hesitant to try to unlock the marshmallow bootloader, because according to the instructions, it looks like I have to deal with kingroot/kingoroot again to do it. And I had such a hard time getting those to work this first time (easily 80+ tries running kingoroot) before I got temproot, that I'm not sure I want to take the risk of doing it again.
In your opinion, is it worth the risk to unlock the marshmallow bootloader? Or is running marshmallow on the lollipop bootloader reasonable enough?
Thanks
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Click to collapse
That's a difficult question to answer and for me would boil down to whether I wanted features available in Marshmallow based ROMs or not.
Wifi calling is a nice to have feature for me but it's not really a dealbreaker. There's a bit more security baked into Marshmallow which is always nice to have.
The development atmosphere is more active over at the generic Note 4 forum. You can now get one of the super ROMs (Note/S7 combo ports) in either flavor. You'll want to stick with ROMs developed for the N910F or G models. They're international phones with fewer integration headaches for our N910V phones. To use those ROMs on our phone, you'll need a data fix most kindly provided by @louforgiveno.
My suggestion in picking a ROM is to zero in on one that seems to have the features you'd like to have and read the entire thread. Look for threads in either the General or Q&A subforums that are dedicated to answering questions about the ROM and read those, too. Some of those threads are upwards to 1,000 posts or more, you say? You'll discover what problems people have had with the ROM and the solutions or workarounds needed to overcome them. You'll also discover just how lazy many posters are either not reading thoroughly or failing to use the search function.
Final suggestions? Do a full nandroid backup before you flash anything. In TWRP, check off all of the boxes. In many of today's ROMs, you'll have a 8 to 10 gig backup file. If you can't keep that on the phone, move it to your PC. There will be far fewer tears if something goes wrong. When you flash a ROM, do a full wipe. I check off Dalvik/ART cache, system, data, and cache. For your first ROM, I would move anything that you have on internal storage off the phone and wipe internal storage too. If you have any Kingroot/Kingoroot cooties, that should clear them off the phone. When you're done flashing a ROM there's an option to wipe the cache. Do it. If you've installed a bunch or apps or deleted them, wipe the Dalvik and cache. It'll help bring the Android stars into alignment as that forces the system to optimize.
Good luck and happy flashing.
You need to go to 5.1.1 use kingOroot and then do it again. Cid will remain that's what I did. Its different for everyone these root methods are pulled from the internet and it will usually take a few time and it will try dufrrent methods of rooting
nertskull said:
I had 5.1.1 installed. Couldn't get KingRoot to give temp root (lots of people say you can only do it on 4.4.4, lots of other people say they got it to work on 5.1.1 if you read around).
So I tried downgrading to 4.4.4. Odin failed every time.
So I tried downgrading to 5.0.1. That worked. But kingroot still was unable to get root.
I then found King O Root. Tried that once, no luck. Tried it a 2nd time, and success. I then ran the samsund_fix file. And it changed my CID.
But then you have to restart the phone and run the fix file again.
I have run king o root (and tried kingroot) each at least 30 times now. And I can't get either to give me root access again. I've even tried the desktop version of king o root. Nothing.
I'm SOOO close I feel. But I can't get that last step. Its killing me.
Can anyone help with where to go next?
I figure either 1) I have to find a way to get temporary root one more time. OR 2) find a way to get down to kitkat 4.4.4 to get temporary root.
One other quick question, is the reason I can't get to 4.4.4 because I upgraded all the way to 5.1.1? EVERYTHING I read says 'yeah you can downgrade' but mine won't downgrade. Odin fails with an error So how do I get to 4.4.4? Am I just screwed?
NAND Write Start!
boot.img
FAIL! (Auth)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, I had to run Kingoroot from my laptop, and Kingroot never worked.
My mom accidentally upgraded her Note to Marshmallow. She hates stock because of how slow it runs. I've had @hsbadr's CM on my Note for a while now and I really like it. She's willing to try it out, but now that she's upgraded to MM, there's no root.
Is it possible to flash the full Stock 5.1.1 tar, or do I have to wait for KingRoot? I remember someone saying, in one of the threads I'm subscribed to, that it could be downgraded, but I want to make sure, since this time it isn't my phone. I would try it myself and maybe soft brick my phone, but mine is already happily running CM.
The phone should be on the CPF3 firmware right now.
Sorry to bump this, but it would be really great to have a definitive answer. Everything's backed up, but I still don't want to hard brick the phone.
OK, so I went ahead and tried flashing the StockRestore BPA1 firmware. That led to this error: [tz] fused 2 > Binary 1. Apparently I can't downgrade the bootloader, and that's why I got that error. I'm now trying to flash the N910VVRU2BPA1_N910VVRU2BPA1_VZW firmware.
That one worked. I was able to boot into 5.1.1, but since it still had the 6.0.1 bootloader (I think this is the reason), KingRoot wouldn't work. Using the Kingo Root desktop app (it's been updated; looks a lot nicer) allowed me to root and unlock.