Root [Virgin Mobile] MD7 to Cyanogenmod 10.2?

[ASJ80]

My S3 is still on MD7.
My Device Status is modified.
It is rooted with SuperSu installed
It also has Philz recovery

I have a file named 171e26831d5c5b0ca1ba82ed926f1d442178c6bb.update_SPH-L710_MD7_to_MG2.zip sitting in the cache directory.

I would like to install CyanogenMod 10.2

Should I attempt to upgrade to MG2 before flashing CM, or would it be OK to go from MD7 straight to CM?

Here are some files the MG2 zip contains:
aboot.mbn
rpm.mbn
sbl2.mbn
sbl3.mbn
tz.mbn
/patch/boot.img.p
/patch/non-hlos.img.p

In updater-script contained within the zip file, I see the boot image is being patched. Is a patched boot image necessary before I upgrade to CM?
I also see the modem is being patched, but I'm pretty sure I don't need to worry about that since I can just use ODIN to stick the MK5 modem on.

Would there be any reason to install some or all of the .mbn files before upgrading? I'm assuming I could just use dd to write them to their respective blocks.
Such as:
dd if=/sdcard/aboot.mbn of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p5
dd if=/sdcard/rpm.mbn of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p6
etc...

 

[struckn]

So you are referring to the OTA which updated MD7 to MG2 I would assume. My phone came with MD7 and that update happened as part of the initial setup. It should be safe, but I would hate to tell you to jump on it only to have the newest Knox based one sneak in shortly thereafter as well. My understanding is that the bootloader for MD7 was for Ice Cream Sandwich, which is why so many users in the early days had a ton of trouble flashing any custom ROM's. The update to MG2 brought with it a JellyBean-compatible bootloader. By the way, thank you for the very detailed post and welcome to the forums!

 

[ASJ80]

I'm not too experienced with OTA's since this is the first phone I've had that has actually received one. Would it work to just flash the zip from Philz recovery? If not would installing an mg2 boot loader from someone else be a good idea? I didn't accept the update when I first got the phone a few days ago because I thought it was trying to update to mk5.

If I need to I could always put my backup of the stock recovery back on my phone and then accept the update. Or do I need to get rid of the modified status first? From my reading different forums I think triangle away might work, but I'm not completely sure of that.

 

[ASJ80]

I'm running MG2 now.

Here's what I finally ended up doing just in case anyone wants to know.

Used Triangle Away to reset the flash counter
Used dd to reinstall the stock recovery
Booted into stock recovery and chose Apply Update from Cache

The update unrooted my phone, so I had to install a custom recovery with Odin and then install the root from recovery zip found in another thread.

Overall things went smoothly, so I'll eventually get around to installing CM 10.2

 

[struckn]

I'm running MG2 now.

Here's what I finally ended up doing just in case anyone wants to know.

Used Triangle Away to reset the flash counter
Used dd to reinstall the stock recovery
Booted into stock recovery and chose Apply Update from Cache

The update unrooted my phone, so I had to install a custom recovery with Odin and then install the root from recovery zip found in another thread.

Overall things went smoothly, so I'll eventually get around to installing CM 10.2

Well done! Since it always comes back to Knox in the end anymore, Triangle Away is not going to work for anyone on a Knoxed up SGS3, but it is still obviously valid in cases like this one.