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Root [Virgin Mobile] [VIRGINMOBILE][GUIDE][BASIC][WIP] Rooting for Newbies!

seaton said:
Great guide I appreciate the work. I recently upgraded from my EVO3D which I had S-OFF, and rooted. At home my EVO got 600k down, 500k up. My Samsung got 18MB down 5UP, amazing :) Now I setup tether / wifi or something I will be thrilled. (yeah yeah I know be careful)

So I have been digging around and cant find an answer to a couple questions.

I know obviously from your guide I can root the phone, is the such thing as S-OFF or equivelent, or is that just an HTC thing I dont need on Samsung as there is no boot loader.

Also the one suggestion / question I had was how to dump a STOCK as shipped image backup of my phone before I started rooting it.

Hopefully I didn't miss this information elsewhere. Thanks so much for yours and everyones work and great guide.:D
Click to expand...

There is no s off on Samsung.
 
Also the one suggestion / question I had was how to dump a STOCK as shipped image backup of my phone before I started rooting it.
Click to expand...

You can't pull a full image without root but all you need to do is follow guide to flash TWRP via Odin and before you do anything else do a backup using TWRP. This will get you a backup of rom, kernel and whatever user data you may have on it at time.
 
TheBritton said:
THIS METHOD INTENDED FOR VIRGIN MOBILE USERS​

ROOTING FOR NEWBIES!

First off, thanks to xInterlopeRx who is a part of [OUDHS] (Official Unloved Devices Hit Squad) which brought us ports such as the TWRP and CWM recoveries which will be used to root this phone. Expect brilliant future development from this team! Be sure and give a thanks to them!

If you just bought the phone you are probably on Android OS 4.1.2
If you are still on Ice Cream Sandwich (Android OS 4.0) this guide will still work for you, but you might want to upgrade to Jellybean using the "Update Firmware" option in System Updates found in your settings menu before you root.

Make sure you have the Samsung USB drivers installed on your computer.
You may find those here: Samsung_USB_Driver_for_Mobile_Phones_v1.5.14.0.exe

First thing you'll need to root this phone is a custom recovery. You will need to download that here: TWRP.2.4.3.0.tar
Now, you're gonna want to save these two files (you will flash them with your custom recovery after it's installed) and place them on your sd card:
busybox_v1.20.2-CWM+.zip
 SuperSU-v1.34.zip
If you don't have Odin installed on your computer, do that now. You can find Odin here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2133496

You have downloaded and installed Odin and Samsung USB drivers listed above? You've downloaded the TWRP .tar file to your computer and you've place the SuperSU and Busybox zip files on your SD card? Okay, great!

Now, let's flash the custom recovery, which will be TWRP, on your device! And let's root this thing!

  1. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE
  2. On your PC, launch the ODIN.exe file you unzipped from the prerequisites.
  3. On ODIN, click the PDA section and select the TWRP .tar you downloaded from the link above. Uncheck Auto Reboot! Make sure NO partition options are checked!
  4. Place phone in download mode by pressing Volume Down + Power. Hold until confirmation screen appears. Confirm by pressing Volume +.
  5. Connect your phone to the PC via USB cable
  6. Check ODIN. A small box on the upper left should turn blue and the dialog box must display "Added!!"
  7. Select "Start" and wait for it to finish. After it is complete, Odin will say PASS! After you see this, disconnect the USB cable from your phone and pull your battery out of your phone.
  8. Place the battery back in. While holding the VOLUME UP button, press the power and hold it until you see the green text that says "Booting into recovery". As soon as you see this green text let go of all the buttons!
  9. Click on Install in your custom recovery (TWRP) and navigate to where you placed the two files listed earlier which will be the Busybox and SuperSU zip. You will want to install both of those. Assuming it is successful, you will then want to select Reboot System from your TWRP menu.
  10. You should now be rooted! I assume you are familiar with what rooting does so there is no need to explain how SuperSU works. ENJOY YOUR ROOTED PHONE!
Click to expand...
Flawless Victory!!! Thanks, u da BOMB !!!
 
1st off, thank you to all the Developers. This is the easiest phone ever to root and customize compared to my old phone which is a HTC Wildfire S Marvelc. Anyway, I stuck with the stock 4.1 but flashed the latest kernel from Jerry Script (Thanks bro). I deleted all the bloatware and now when I make backups using TWRP 2.4 the size is only around 597mb vice 795/800. I converted most Google Apps to User Apps and uninstalled some too. What I did for Google Apps that are still system apps & have updates I will update through Playstore, backup the updated App (Es Explorer's App Manager or go to /data/apps and copy the app) which will be under User Apps, uninstall the updated App, (make sure to rename the Backed up App to the corresponding name in System Apps), finally I go the extsdcard/backups/apps and copy the app I backed up, navigate to System Apps & Paste and make sure you select overwrite so the permissions will be correct (rw r r) but always check the permissions afterwards just to be sure. Yeah you right! Thanks again and I am really enjoying this awesome phone.

P.S. Anytime I make the above mods I always reboot into Recovery using TWRP Manager by jmz and Wipe Cache & Dalvik Cache. TWRP Manager App is like having TWRP Recovery on the System.

BadbrainsEddie
New Orleans, LA
 
I followed this guide, but superuser doesn't work through ADB shell. Am I missing something? I also tried installing superuser 3.0.7 from TWRP.
 
TheBritton said:
You may want to wipe cache in TWRP and also go into the advance menu and wipe dalvik cache before flashing any zips. That never hurts and can resolve a lot of issues.

See if this version of SuperSU works better for you?

As for BusyBox, it can be installed from Market after you flash if you only want to flash one zip.
Click to expand...

I'm using TWRP, (hopefuly) exactly as you've instructed. I tried wiping the cache before flashing zips but still got the signature error message. I can't find the advanced menu in TWRP.

I'm not clear on which step actually roots the phone? It seems SuperSU requires the phone to be already rooted in order to work, acc to the blurb when you bring it up on google play. I did download the version of SuperSU above, it's called UpdateSuperSU. Is there maybe a way of bypassing the signature check when flashing?
 
madosaurus said:
I'm using TWRP, (hopefuly) exactly as you've instructed. I tried wiping the cache before flashing zips but still got the signature error message. I can't find the advanced menu in TWRP.

I'm not clear on which step actually roots the phone? It seems SuperSU requires the phone to be already rooted in order to work, acc to the blurb when you bring it up on google play. I did download the version of SuperSU above, it's called UpdateSuperSU. Is there maybe a way of bypassing the signature check when flashing?
Click to expand...

SuperSU (or superuser) is what gives root access and it is flashed with a custom recovery.
The above version of SuperSU does say "UpdateSuperSU" but it is the full standalone SuperSU and not just for updating. Have you tried flashing it? If it fails, I would try another custom recovery.
 
TheBritton said:
SuperSU (or superuser) is what gives root access and it is flashed with a custom recovery.
The above version of SuperSU does say "UpdateSuperSU" but it is the full standalone SuperSU and not just for updating. Have you tried flashing it? If it fails, I would try another custom recovery.
Click to expand...
OK think I'm starting to understand - the recovery log-in has root access and allows installing superSU which then gives root access from normal boot?
Yes I tried flashing UpdatesuperSU from TWRP and it gave the signature fail message. I guess that means the sig does not match ... something...

So you think another custom recovery install should not have the same problem? do you happen to know the name of another one I can install?

Thanks
 
It's OK! I installed a much later version of twrp with the fullmenu etc, and it worked fine, now rooted.
Thx muchly

TheBritton said:
SuperSU (or superuser) is what gives root access and it is flashed with a custom recovery.
The above version of SuperSU does say "UpdateSuperSU" but it is the full standalone SuperSU and not just for updating. Have you tried flashing it? If it fails, I would try another custom recovery.
Click to expand...
 
I have phone rooted but haven't been able to do anything different yet. CAn't find any custom roms for samsung victory for virgin.

At this stage I mainly would like to 1. enable hotspot - I've tried apps for this and they just say it's not allowed on this phone - and

2. enable moving apps to SD card. I'm runnning out of room on internal memory. SAme thing, the apps I tried just direct me to the normal apps settings which already don't have the option to move apps to SD card.

Anyone know how to unblock these functions?
 
madosaurus said:
I have phone rooted but haven't been able to do anything different yet. CAn't find any custom roms for samsung victory for virgin.

At this stage I mainly would like to 1. enable hotspot - I've tried apps for this and they just say it's not allowed on this phone - and

2. enable moving apps to SD card. I'm runnning out of room on internal memory. SAme thing, the apps I tried just direct me to the normal apps settings which already don't have the option to move apps to SD card.

Anyone know how to unblock these functions?
Click to expand...

Here's a ROM for the virgin mobile victory that does both http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?p=5933735 enjoy!
Has WiFi tether, apps 2 SD type hack, and overclock kernel to1.8 GHz. Victorious! :cool:
 
Madbat said:
Here's a ROM for the virgin mobile victory that does both [VMOBI][ROM][KERNEL] Victorious ROM + VaeVictus OC kernel (Updated 7-30-13) - Android Forums enjoy!
Has WiFi tether, apps 2 SD type hack, and overclock kernel to1.8 GHz. Victorious! :cool:
Click to expand...
I decided to go ahead anyway, using this guide:

How To Load a Custom ROM on an Android Device - TheUnlockr TheUnlockr

but when I try to install clockworkMod it says it doesn't have it for this phone. Maybe hat doesn't apply to this phone - can I just use TWRP to install the custom rom?
 
badboytoast said:
Yes you can flash with TWRP recovery. I actually prefer TWRP over clockworkmod. But can some one please answer my question.
Click to expand...

Yes take the update first. All the Roms for the victory require you to be updated to mg5. There is a way to update after root, but before is easier.
 
madosaurus said:
Great thanks. Before I go ahead, why is it saying to flash clockworkmod recovery image? didn't we already flash a custom recovery image TWRP? Or are we finished with that now, like a male black widow spider?
Click to expand...

Flash it with twrp. Read carefully. Its says twrp or cwm recovery. And post questions about victorious in that thread, you'll get better answers. Some ppl used cwm. Twrp is better for this phone.
 
Madbat said:
Flash it with twrp. Read carefully. Its says twrp or cwm recovery. And post questions about victorious in that thread, you'll get better answers. Some ppl used cwm. Twrp is better for this phone.
Click to expand...
OK this would be the right guide to follow I guess?
http://androidforums.com/virgin-mob...-oc-kernel-updated-7-30-13-a.html#post5933735

all this about MG5, I have no idea waht that means but guess I have to do that first. Already rooted so seems like that is a problem for updateing to MG5 too. Or I could unroot then do it, or maybe I already have this MG5 thing?
 
Look in settings/about phone/baseband and it will end in either mc1 or mg5. Mg5 is updated to most recent.
And yep that's the correct thread. Its the one I linked to a few posts back.
 
Madbat said:
Look in settings/about phone/baseband and it will end in either mc1 or mg5. Mg5 is updated to most recent.
And yep that's the correct thread. Its the one I linked to a few posts back.
Click to expand...
OK great I have MG5 already.

Backing up system now from recovery TWRP
 
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