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Root [Virgin Mobile] [GUIDE][MK5][WIP]Rooting MK5 4.3 for Newbies!

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This thread has been re-stickied for easier access ;)

To whom it may concern, I unstuck the previous psa about the sticky limit as its somewhat outdated now. The number of stickied threads are still within those limits.
 
Hi,

I just got a new S3 shipped to me by VM and it came with 4.3 already installed. Can I root using the method posted above? I'm a bit confused (even after reading all the guides) what the Knox bootloader does and if it will prevent me from rooting.

The phone is a replacement for another S3 that stopped charging and I had that version 4.1.2 rooted.
 
jjohns71 said:
Hi,

I just got a new S3 shipped to me by VM and it came with 4.3 already installed. Can I root using the method posted above? I'm a bit confused (even after reading all the guides) what the Knox bootloader does and if it will prevent me from rooting.

The phone is a replacement for another S3 that stopped charging and I had that version 4.1.2 rooted.
Click to expand...

You can still root. This is the thread for rooting mk5. It won't stop you from flashing, but it will trip a counter and void your warranty. The main thing is that you cannot flash any other bootloaders. That can potentially brick your phone.
 
thank you very much for this simple and effective instruction.

Took me only 5 minutes to install and no single applications has been deleted!
 
I followed all the steps correctly... also .. how do I cha ge the boot animation. . I noticed they're in .qmg format?
 
Okay so I already had the 4.3 Stock update on my phone. I rooted using this guide about 4-5 days ago. I since then I switched over to 4.4.2 CM11 nightly. I just read online that Samsung has announced that they are going to release the 4.4.2 update today. My question is this... If I install this stock ROM that you have provided will I be able to install the official Samsung update with Kies? Will it update fine with SU installed? Or do I need to install the stock ROM without SU? Stock Bootloader?

In short... what do I need to do to get my phone ready for a stock update?
 
slim_radio said:
Okay so I already had the 4.3 Stock update on my phone. I rooted using this guide about 4-5 days ago. I since then I switched over to 4.4.2 CM11 nightly. I just read online that Samsung has announced that they are going to release the 4.4.2 update today. My question is this... If I install this stock ROM that you have provided will I be able to install the official Samsung update with Kies? Will it update fine with SU installed? Or do I need to install the stock ROM without SU? Stock Bootloader?

In short... what do I need to do to get my phone ready for a stock update?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure all Roms, even stock based ones disable the it's update system, and if u were able to push it with somethingit would probly remove the SU itself

The best way if you looking for a stock ota update would be IMO to be back on 100% stock setup

Also since u accepted the 4.3 update you have Knox which means you always have the stock boot loader, if not ur phone would be bricked lol as Knox auto bricks the device if you try to mess with the bootloader

Although I'm not an expert, its what I've been lead to believe from reading is all the Roms have ota updates disabled
 
Hey if I have to remove ROOT there's no problem here. I'm just not happy with the CM11 4.4.2 because it has flaws in skype and Glide apps that I use EXTREMELY frequently. I reverted to the MK5 stock ROM posted here and these apps are working again for me but with the new official 4.4.2 TW release coming soon I would like to be able to give it a shot. If anyone has any more information that can help me achieve this goal I would really appreciate it. Also thanks to everyone who put in the man hours making this ROOT possible for those of us that have KNOX. I really enjoy tinkering around with my phone using sites such as this and XDA been a leecher for almost 4 years. But in most cases there are guides to revert ROOT and go back to stock. Either I'm overlooking something in the forum or this must just not be possible yet?
 
TheBritton said:
From my understand, yes. You will be able to install future updates. You just will not be able to downgrade to a non-Knox bootloader
Tripping the Knox flag disables Knox security and if you were a government agent or corporate exec that uses it, your protected info is not accessible anymore ;)

EDIT: and thanks! I guess it would be good to add warning that rooting trips the KNOX bootloader (doing so now) LOL :D
Click to expand...

Woah Duh! I guess I did overlook. Unless I'm reading this wrong he's saying that you can still update in the very first comment under the OP... *DERP*
Also sorry for double post :/ Did I mention I'm usually a leecher???
 
So I got a replacement phone today. I wanted to root it, so I followed the instructions in this thread, but I keep getting a message that says:

E:Error in /storage/sdcard1/MK5_STOCK_ROOTED.zip
(status 7)
Installation aborted

It's stuck now. I haven't activated yet so luckily I'm not stuck without a phone, but I need to take care of this pretty fast so I can send back my other phone. Any idea what to do?
 
ItsAlwaysMonda said:
So I got a replacement phone today. I wanted to root it, so I followed the instructions in this thread, but I keep getting a message that says:

E:Error in /storage/sdcard1/MK5_STOCK_ROOTED.zip
(status 7)
Installation aborted

It's stuck now. I haven't activated yet so luckily I'm not stuck without a phone, but I need to take care of this pretty fast so I can send back my other phone. Any idea what to do?
Click to expand...

Status 7 error is usually reserved for when ur flashing the wrong ROM, you may also get it I believe depending on the recovery you use

If you have the virgin mobile sph-l710 then there shouldn't be wrong ROM issue

As for recovery everyone uses Phil's, but its come to the attention of some who brought it to our attention like stucken that the newest Phil's has issues when doing flashing of anything before KitKat until u unclick the option only use updated binarys or something
 
Tokens210 said:
Status 7 error is usually reserved for when ur flashing the wrong ROM, you may also get it I believe depending on the recovery you use

If you have the virgin mobile sph-l710 then there shouldn't be wrong ROM issue

As for recovery everyone uses Phil's, but its come to the attention of some who brought it to our attention like stucken that the newest Phil's has issues when doing flashing of anything before KitKat until u unclick the option only use updated binarys or something
Click to expand...
That's what I read, but I downloaded everything through the links in this thread. I should have that phone; Virgin Mobile sent me this replacement.

Ok maybe I will try unchecking that option later today. What menu do I find that under? I was thinking I should use the same version recovery as mentioned in the thread, but they only had the zip file for that version for download. The tar file was the newer version.
 
ItsAlwaysMonda said:
That's what I read, but I downloaded everything through the links in this thread. I should have that phone; Virgin Mobile sent me this replacement.

Ok maybe I will try unchecking that option later today. What menu do I find that under? I was thinking I should use the same version recovery as mentioned in the thread, but they only had the zip file for that version for download. The tar file was the newer version.
Click to expand...

I'm not 100% on where the option is, struckn has mentioned it in I believe one of the Phil's threads, as far as recoveries go almost everyone here's in agreement that Phil's is the best, just the latest versions have the issue but I believe according to struckn the option should fix it

CWM isn't good on these devices, u can get an altered one that will run on this phone but it cannot flash anything over jb at all

And yea as long as ur VM s3 isn't from Canada then I believe it should be the sph-l710


The phils is on I believe 6.17.5, in one of the threads where struckn mentioned the option I believe there may be zips available for older versions, if ur directed to the Phil's host site where there will be a list of the versions the newest you'd want would be inside d2lte, any version besides the newest would be in d2spr, but you'd wanna make sure u got the sph-l710 before trying to flash any d2spr as the spr stands for sprint which is identical to our device minus apns , the d2lte is a new standard everyone jumping onto where the Dev includes all important files for all branding of the device


I personally always try to have the newest to make use of any updates and bug fixes so I'd personally try to get the newest Phil's to flash before downgrading it to an older 1, im on my phone currently which gives me issues when I try copy and pasting links so I can't find the thread for ya currently but u can use the search and search this all things root for Philz and you should easily find it, maybe not so easy lol I tried finding it to direct ya to it and cant, so hopefully someone will jump in
 
I couldn't find the option anywhere, so I decided to just try to find an older version of Philz in case that was the problem. I located some here, but after I flashed it my phone would hang, and I couldn't get into recovery. I figured that it must be for another version of the S3. So I went back and flashed this older one, and it worked, and then the flash worked. So now my phone is ok! Thanks so much for your help!
 
ItsAlwaysMonda said:
I couldn't find the option anywhere, so I decided to just try to find an older version of Philz in case that was the problem. I located some here, but after I flashed it my phone would hang, and I couldn't get into recovery. I figured that it must be for another version of the S3. So I went back and flashed this older one, and it worked, and then the flash worked. So now my phone is ok! Thanks so much for your help!
Click to expand...

Just FYI, your first link is for the international variants. Be very careful in general when looking for options for our phones, you need to see "Sprint," d2spr, d2lte, or SPH-L710 as part of the title. You are lucky you didn't do major damage to your phone; if it had been a ROM and not a recovery, that would have been the case.
 
struckn said:
Just FYI, your first link is for the international variants. Be very careful in general when looking for options for our phones, you need to see "Sprint," d2spr, d2lte, or SPH-L710 as part of the title. You are lucky you didn't do major damage to your phone; if it had been a ROM and not a recovery, that would have been the case.
Click to expand...
I hadn't realized, and I was rushing to try anything, because I'd been trying to figure this out for 2 days and wanted to fix it. I should have been more careful about checking. What happens if you flash an incompatible ROM? You can't wipe it in recovery?
 
ItsAlwaysMonda said:
I hadn't realized, and I was rushing to try anything, because I'd been trying to figure this out for 2 days and wanted to fix it. I should have been more careful about checking. What happens if you flash an incompatible ROM? You can't wipe it in recovery?
Click to expand...

ROM's that are carrier specific (prior to the new unified d2lte builds for some ROM's) flash different info to different partitions, so you are more likely talking about brick city and an inoperable phone. Like I mentioned earlier, make sure you see one of those designations (d2lte, d2spr, etc.); if not, ask first. The only stupid question is the one that isn't asked in advance! If need be, and this goes for everyone who doesn't already know, I respond to all PM's if you are worried about posting something publicly that may look "dumb." This is one of the most helpful Android communities I have ever seen in the first place, so don't hesitate to get help on the front end, fixing a problem on the back end can be confusing and sometimes costly!
 
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