• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Root How to disable that damn system write protection

I have zips just for the latest versions of PACROM and CM12.1 already uploaded to android file host also I just haven't re-downloaded and re-tested them yet.

I've already spent half the day zipping, unzipping rezipping, uploading, downloading, wiping, flashing, rewiping, reflashing, md5 checking, rebooting, and more md5 checking. So time consuming... UGH!!!
 
Read the whole first and second post before downloading and using these zips.

Post #1 Disclaimer, Credits, and Necessary Warnings
Post #2 Instructions For Use and Other Stuff You Should Know
Post #3 Download Links

Hi everyone, something that has been bothering me is the fact that in order to have write access to the system partition while booted in Android, you have to copy the boot.img to the recovery partition. This has been causing a lot of people to brick their phones because they messed something up and didn't have a recovery installed. My idea was to create flashable zips that will allow you to easily copy the boot.img to the recovery partition while still having TWRP installed (on your boot partition). This allows you to have full root capabilities while still having TWRP on your phone.

All credit goes to hroark13 for building TWRP for all of us and for building most of the ROMs that these zips are made for. Special thanks to xtremeasure ( Android Forums Profile, XDA Profile ) and imattmodz for helping test my zips for T-Mobile and for valuable advice which helped take the risk out of using these zips.
Please make sure that you thank hroark13 for his work. Hit the like/thanks button to show your support or buy him a beer.

DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE THESE ZIPS OR POST DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINKS!!!
This is very important because if you upload these zips and one of the files gets corrupted it may potentially brick someone's phone. It is also very important that you dont post direct download links because anyone who downloads these files needs to be able to check the md5 sums to make sure that they didn't get a bad download.

You must check the md5 sum for both zips after you download them in order to make sure that everything is good. If you skip this very important step you could mess your phone up badly. If your md5 does not match, delete the files and download them again and then check the md5 again. Also, I recently moved the switcher & restore zips that I use from my internal storage to my SD card and one of the files got corrupted. This means that you also need to check the md5 sums again whenever you to move or copy these files.

You can use md5 Checker to check the md5 and make sure that you did not get a bad download.
If there is anything that you are not 100% sure of, ask before you flash!!

I am not responsible for anything that happens to your phone. If you use my zips you are doing so at your own risk. I have thoroughly tested all four of these zips and they all work perfectly. If you have a problem after using my zips then you did something wrong.

DO NOT ACCEPT ANY OTA UPDATES.
DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TRY TO FACTORY RESET FROM THE SETTINGS MENU. IF YOU HAVE FLASHED A SWITCHER ZIP YOU HAVE TO FLASH THE RESTORE ZIP AND REBOOT RECOVERY BEFORE YOU CAN DO ANYTHING WITH TWRP.
Are the md5 sums suppose to be the same???
22c67e9823193a94dd432271602a4dec
that's mine for the switcher

644fa642d6f034ace478a296a5f73194
That's mine for the recovery

Are those right and so can you explain again what to do after what because I don't wanna brick my phone and I Don ft really understand what to do
 
Read the whole first and second post before downloading and using these zips.

Post #1 Disclaimer, Credits, and Necessary Warnings
Post #2 Instructions For Use and Other Stuff You Should Know
Post #3 Download Links

Hi everyone, something that has been bothering me is the fact that in order to have write access to the system partition while booted in Android, you have to copy the boot.img to the recovery partition. This has been causing a lot of people to brick their phones because they messed something up and didn't have a recovery installed. My idea was to create flashable zips that will allow you to easily copy the boot.img to the recovery partition while still having TWRP installed (on your boot partition). This allows you to have full root capabilities while still having TWRP on your phone.

All credit goes to hroark13 for building TWRP for all of us and for building most of the ROMs that these zips are made for. Special thanks to xtremeasure ( Android Forums Profile, XDA Profile ) and imattmodz for helping test my zips for T-Mobile and for valuable advice which helped take the risk out of using these zips.
Please make sure that you thank hroark13 for his work. Hit the like/thanks button to show your support or buy him a beer.

DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE THESE ZIPS OR POST DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINKS!!!
This is very important because if you upload these zips and one of the files gets corrupted it may potentially brick someone's phone. It is also very important that you dont post direct download links because anyone who downloads these files needs to be able to check the md5 sums to make sure that they didn't get a bad download.

You must check the md5 sum for both zips after you download them in order to make sure that everything is good. If you skip this very important step you could mess your phone up badly. If your md5 does not match, delete the files and download them again and then check the md5 again. Also, I recently moved the switcher & restore zips that I use from my internal storage to my SD card and one of the files got corrupted. This means that you also need to check the md5 sums again whenever you to move or copy these files.

You can use md5 Checker to check the md5 and make sure that you did not get a bad download.
If there is anything that you are not 100% sure of, ask before you flash!!

I am not responsible for anything that happens to your phone. If you use my zips you are doing so at your own risk. I have thoroughly tested all four of these zips and they all work perfectly. If you have a problem after using my zips then you did something wrong.

DO NOT ACCEPT ANY OTA UPDATES.
DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TRY TO FACTORY RESET FROM THE SETTINGS MENU. IF YOU HAVE FLASHED A SWITCHER ZIP YOU HAVE TO FLASH THE RESTORE ZIP AND REBOOT RECOVERY BEFORE YOU CAN DO ANYTHING WITH TWRP.
Are the md5 sums suppose to be the same???
22c67e9823193a94dd432271602a4dec
that's mine for the switcher

644fa642d6f034ace478a296a5f73194
That's mine for the recovery

Are those right and so can you explain again what to do after what because I don't wanna brick my phone and I Don ft really understand what to do
 
Are the md5 sums suppose to be the same???
22c67e9823193a94dd432271602a4dec
that's mine for the switcher

644fa642d6f034ace478a296a5f73194
That's mine for the recovery

Are those right and so can you explain again what to do after what because I don't wanna brick my phone and I Don ft really understand what to do
Thoroughly read the instructions in post #2 and then explain which steps you don't understand. Also, if you were asking if the md5 for both zips are supposed to be the same then the answer is no. The md5 for the switcher zip you downloaded is supposed to be the same as the one posted for that exact file. It looks like you downloaded the zips for the T-Mobile stock ROM. The md5 for the switcher zip you have needs to match the one I posted for the T-Mobile switcher. The md5 for the restore zip you have needs to match the one for the T-Mobile restore.
Edit: By the way, the md5 sums you posted are the correct ones.
 
Last edited:
Hey Masterchief, I looked through this entire thread and I don't think that I saw it mentioned here, but if I am switching from say butternoob 4.4.4 to Carbon 5.1.1 am I going to see any issues using the different switcher ZIP for Carbon immediately after using the restore ZIP for butternoob? As I tend to just leave my phone in the switched state most of the time anyways, as it is right now with butternoob being my daily driver. (I like to live dangerously). So I am going to reboot to get into Recovery, flash the butternoob restore, reboot recovery, make a backup and flash Carbon and the Gapps, then flash the Carbon switcher and do what I need to do? And also, what switcher should I use for the Candy5 ROM? Thanks for all the hard work, I had begun to lose hope in this phone.
 
Hey Masterchief, I looked through this entire thread and I don't think that I saw it mentioned here, but if I am switching from say butternoob 4.4.4 to Carbon 5.1.1 am I going to see any issues using the different switcher ZIP for Carbon immediately after using the restore ZIP for butternoob? As I tend to just leave my phone in the switched state most of the time anyways, as it is right now with butternoob being my daily driver. (I like to live dangerously). So I am going to reboot to get into Recovery, flash the butternoob restore, reboot recovery, make a backup and flash Carbon and the Gapps, then flash the Carbon switcher and do what I need to do? And also, what switcher should I use for the Candy5 ROM? Thanks for all the hard work, I had begun to lose hope in this phone.
You got it right, that's how it works. Thats what i do at least. I don't experience any lag. And in the Candy5 OP he posted links for the switcher and restore zips. In my opinion Candy5 is rock solid, was my daily, til I started using Blisspop lol
 
Ethan has boot switcher & restore zips for candy5 and I think he has them for blisspop as well so you can get those from the actual ROM threads.
 
i wanna start out by saying, its awesome that you @Masterchief87 are doing all that you are, regardless of my (maybe) brick, i appreciate it. now for my problem, i checked the md5 for both files, but when i flashed the switcher i get "E: Unable to mount '/system' " error, does anyone know how to fix this?
 
@Masterchief87 if I root can I put a stock mpcsrom on the t-mobile version of the zmax kinda like you were able to with the Samsung avant great work in that area by the way cause t-mobile is telling me they won't send unlock code cause I'm not an t-mobile account holder but if it was a mpcsrom my Sim would register right?
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom