Develop Bugs

[Q] Help needed installing rom on lenovo s850

Hello. I have baught a lenovo s850 from china, which of course has a chinese rom installed and is unrooted. Because I have some battery draining issues, I want to install a european rom on this phone. But I am not sure for some things.
1. Should I root this phone fist? (I would like to have a full backup of this phone, in case something goes wrong) I tried to take a backup with mtk droid tools which fails because the phone is not rooted.
2. If rooting is needed for the backup, then if something fails during rooting, how can i go back?
3. Should I install custom recovery? (ex. TWRP) If yes, is this procedure dangerous?
any other advice concerning the installing a rom procedure will be appreciated.

[Q] Full ROM backup/restore?

I recently upgraded from a Galaxy S4. I had flashed a custom ROM, 4.3 Stock(ish)v06. The main reasons I loved it were for the built-in WiFi Tethering and the built-in ad blocking.
1) Is there such a ROM for the LG G3 with these two features? If not the tethering, the ad-blocking is much more important.
2) I have been out of ROM flashing for quite a while and only got back into it a year or so ago to root my Galaxy S4. To be able to do a full backup of my current ROM and everything in memory so that I can restore it completely, what do I need to do? Is it something like this:
a) Root it
b) Install a custom recovery (I liked Philz)
c) Use the custom recovery to do a full backup

Dougmeister said:
I recently upgraded from a Galaxy S4. I had flashed a custom ROM, 4.3 Stock(ish)v06. The main reasons I loved it were for the built-in WiFi Tethering and the built-in ad blocking.
1) Is there such a ROM for the LG G3 with these two features? If not the tethering, the ad-blocking is much more important.
2) I have been out of ROM flashing for quite a while and only got back into it a year or so ago to root my Galaxy S4. To be able to do a full backup of my current ROM and everything in memory so that I can restore it completely, what do I need to do? Is it something like this:
a) Root it
b) Install a custom recovery (I liked Philz)
c) Use the custom recovery to do a full backup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cyanogenmod 12 has USB tethering, hotspot, and Bluetooth tethering built-in. You can also just download a third party app for adblocking such as AdBlocker, which was made by the same people who made the ad blocker on computers that you're probably using right now.
To create a full backup:
I would recommend TWRP because it is the only one I'm familiar with and can't suggest others. First, root your phone, install SuperSu, and all that other stuff. Then install TWRP. The setup is really easy and I had it myself in minutes. Then just reboot into custom recovery and tap backup and do a full backup. It's that simple.

Thanks for the response.
Is it really that simple? I've been reading, and apparently no one can root the latest version of Android (v5.0.1) on the Sprint LG G3. Maybe I should have said what version came on the phone.
Everything I've been able to find says that I'd have to revert to an older version of Android first and *then* root it?

Dougmeister said:
Thanks for the response.
Is it really that simple? I've been reading, and apparently no one can root the latest version of Android (v5.0.1) on the Sprint LG G3. Maybe I should have said what version came on the phone.
Everything I've been able to find says that I'd have to revert to an older version of Android first and *then* root it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You would have to use the LG Flash Tool to downgrade your phone to an earlier version that can be rooted. The process itself will take 30 minutes Max, but downloading the files may take a while since they are more than a gig.
Saw your reply by chance. Quote me to ensure a response (it'll send me an email).
Sent from my LG-D851

How did I root an S4 Mini in 2014? How do I unroot it?

I know the title sounds weird, but here's my story:
I rooted an S4 Mini between the end of 2013 and summer of 2014, using whatever method was available, working and simplest at the time. I'd say I didn't install a custom recovery unless it was absolutely required by such method and I certainly never installed a custom ROM. Now I need to update the stock ROM to KitKat for app compatibility reasons and I need to unroot the phone. I would go for the good old trial and error method, but I don't have the phone in my hands: I need to guide a person who's smart but not tech-savvy enough to do this on her own.
My question then is: given all the information above, what's the best/simplest/only way to unroot the phone? Does it depend on how it was rooted? To be clear, I have found a procedure which involves flashing the stock ROM via Kies, but what I am ideally aiming for is an unroot that leaves the phone in its current state, without flashing/resetting anything. If it's possible, of course.
Thanks in advance for any help!

You can try unroot function in SuperSU. But i'm not sure that it is completely remove root from your phone. Anyway the best way to flash stock with full wipe. (sorry for bad english)

Thanks, that would be my first option, I just wanted some input/tips/warning from others. Your English is perfectly understandable, by the way.

M8s on Marshmallow - systemless root - how?

Hi,
I recently had to return my phone back to stock because of a warranty issue. (battery dying between 25% and 40%)
So chances are high that I will get the phone back with Marshmallow instead of Lollipop.
is there a guide or can anyone give some pointers how to root this device? After a bit of reading I still have a few specific questions, so maybe someone here can help.
A) What TWRP version will I need for the M8s on Marsmallow?
B) Will Magisk systemless root work on this device?
C) If the rooting has succeeded and I remove some bloatware apps from /system/vendor and /privapp and such. Will this trip the Google safety net? Or is safety net not yet applied to our M8s devices?
Thanks!

I don't personally have the M8s version specifically. But as the device forum sections for all the M8 versions in general are becoming pretty quiet; I'll try to help you to the best of my knowledge.
A) The TWRP recovery posted in this (M8s) forum section should work fine on Marshmallow. Looks like it's only updated to 2.8.6
B) Should work, yes. I would suggest the current stable Magisk version, which is 14.0
Backup your stock (unrooted) ROM before trying to root (as you always should - this is best practice and just good common sense). Then if anything goes wrong, you can easily restore to stock.
C) Not sure. But I can tell you on my current device (OnePlus 3T) that removing system (bloat) apps does not trip safety net.

Hi @redpoint73,
Thanks. That takes away some worries and gives me some confidence for giving it a third shot . Nandroid's don't work on the M8s unfortunately, I've tried this once since I botched something up during my first root attempt, put back the Nandroid and my Bluetooth was dead. (and probably more, but I didn't investigate it further back then.)
As in regards of removing bloat, since HTC has the S-on I was only able to remove the pre-installed apps from within TWRP (or else the apps were back after a reboot), so I guess this process remains the same?
Thanks so far and I'll report back my results in this topic. Now I first have to wait to see if they give me my warranty, since the bootloader said relocked and the firm I had to send it to is notorious for blaming factory faults on rooting of the phone. Fingers crossed!

Thijs_Rallye said:
As in regards of removing bloat, since HTC has the S-on I was only able to remove the pre-installed apps from within TWRP (or else the apps were back after a reboot), so I guess this process remains the same?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should be the same, yes.
The reason for this, is that the system is write-protected, even with root. On the M8, there is a kernel mod which disables the write protection (allows you to modify system while booted to OS), but I don't know if there is such a mod for the M8s. But if you were able to do it in TWRP, the same should apply on Marshmallow.

So I finally got my phone back, or well, to be accurate, I got another phone (albeit another M8s) back under warranty. I guess they f'd it up during repairs or something. And as expected my phone was upgraded to Marshmallow.
Anyhow, the more I read about Magisk and systemless rooting the more lost I seem to get lost. Is there somewhere a step by step guide for obtaining root on this phone?
Let me recap from what I've understood so far (SOURCE 1, SOURCE 2 and SOURCE 3)
1) Backup my boot partition, I am still searching how to accomplish this without rooting the phone first. Booting to TWRP without installing resulted in mangling some data in the boot partition, so unfortunately that is not an option. (blanks the OS version)
2) Boot to TWRP and flash the Magisk zip file. There should be an option somewhere in TWRP to enable systemless rooting.
3) ?
So if anyone knows if I am on the right (or wrong) track please let me know .
Thijs
Edit: I can't seem to get the phone boot TWRP for some reason (from my harddrive htc_fastboot boot twrp.img). This used to be possible on my old M8s which I had send in for repairs. Do I really have to flash it because I have no way of backing up the old original recovery .

Okay, since it is kinda dead in here let me bump this for anyone in the same situation. I've managed to install Magisk successfully. The steps involved
1) unlock bootloader
2) flash twrp (htc_fastboot flash recovery twrp.img) I've used the latest version from Captain Throwback which I've found in the OP of the Void_Zero Lineage OS thread.
3) boot the phone and copy magisk systemless root zip and the apk file to your internal storage Grab the uninstaller as well in the topic.
4) reboot to recovery (adb reboot bootloader)
5) flash the zip from within recovery
6) reboot the phone and install the Magisk app.
7) done
Use this guide on your own risk. It worked flawlessly for me but no guarantees .

is my phone really rooted?

I used to be more active on these forums before I got my oneplus 5T and one of the biggest reasons was I wanted a clean fast OS without all the bloatware that many other manufacturers put on their phones. I tried a search but I did not find what I was looking for, so I apologize in advance if this is already covered in another thread.
Anyway, I picked up a 5T about a year ago while visiting family in Europe. (I'm the 2nd owner to the phone) I never bothered to install TWRP or anything else bcs the phone was running really well with stock. All OTA updates have been installing whenever they were released.
Now to my question. While trying to install workspace one app from playstore (my company requires it) the app won't install bcs it claims my phone is rooted. That is the only app that I have ever had any issues with.
I ran root check witch states "sorry! Root access is not properly installed on this device"
How do I unroot my phone if it's really rooted? Or lock the bootloader? maybe that's the same? TWRP is not installed, when I boot into recovery I get into oneplus stock recovery software.

Hi, unfortunately I can't tell you right off if your phone is rooted. If root checker is saying no, then maybe you aren't, but still check if you have magisk or some other root solution app installed. When you got it from someone, they also could have flashed ROMs etc and when they returned it to stock for resale, they night have missed something like relocking bootloader, even if they did re install stock recovery. If I were in your shoes though, I would reboot to bootloader and check if it's unlocked or not. If it is, it's a simple "fastboot oem lock" from terminal. If that's not the case or solution, I dunno what to say. One thing that I would do if I were desparate is to try to take a backup of all the music/pics/texts/whatever other essential bits of data. Then I would reinstall stock recovery, as well as the latest official (not beta) Oxygen OS from oneplus's page. You can find it under the support tab and then software upgrade, then choose the device. Not only that but maybe completely nuke it, as in format, wipe, etc. And lock the bootloader and also let it get encrypted and stuff.. in other words, restore to as stock as possible. Then once you are done you can test. If this fails and bricks, there's a unbrick guide somewhere here for our phone, and also the backup is there for you. If you successfully restore to stock and this does not work, then maybe it is just the app that has a problem with not super stock Android (OOS). I must warn you that this process is risky and I am in no way gonna be responsible for lost data, because I did say make a backup and also it is up to you to do this. I hope this helps a bit, and if you aren't super familiar with the process it may take a while, around an hour if you do not run into any hitches and your download speed is good enough.