Can I root a Chinese knock off of the Note 3?

[Brandon Miller2]

Lightahead model LA905 with 4.3 Jellybean. I've tried poot, framaroot, towel root, and kingo with no luck.

 

[Rukbat]

Can you? You can root any Linux device that doesn't already have su installed (by installing it). How? You have to find an exploit that will work. Towel Root will root almost any 4.3 ROM. The exploit it uses was patched, in the kernel, on June 3, 2014. Check your kernel date. If it's earlier than that and Towel Root doesn't work, you don't have Android 4.3, you have something that looks like Android 4.3 but isn't. If it's later, you'll have to wait for some of the newer rooting methods and look for one that roots at the kernel level, like TR.

 

[anon(8212032)]

Hey there!

Woah, nice to hear that somebody else has this LA905 from Lightahead... I got it as a replacement (a huge downgrade from my previous Star S7589...).

You can root your phone using framaroot. If you can't find it using google, I can share framaroot file with you somehow.

Overall, how is your phone working?

I want to upgrade mine to KitKat because my RAM is always full and apps shut down randomly. Any help would be appreciated - where to find a custom KitKat ROM for this model?...

 

[silentptnr]

I really need a backup of the rom from the Lightahead LA905. I accidentally bricked the phone and haven't been able to find the firmware anywhere. Could you help me?

 

[anon(8212032)]

Hi.
Yeah, sure, I'll try to make a backup of my own and share it with you.
But if you need it fast, try searching for the firmware of the N9005 Ulefone. It is identical to this LA905.
I'm searching for any custom ROM that would go with my LA905.
How did you brick yours?

 

[silentptnr]

I rooted it, then was playing around with the build.prop and other files to fix the poor gps. Finally got a permanent fix for the gps (which was great to get working perfectly), then somewhere along the way it went into a boot loop and the rest is basically history. I was trying different roms and that's where it is. I couldn't find any information until now about the phone's firmware. If you could manage to make a backup (which I should have done when I bought it) that would be awesome. Not sure how I can get the file from you. Maybe dropbox or something. Just let know.

 

[anon(8212032)]

Hi,
I looked up at the backup options that I could possibly do and found out that basically this model is unsupported by major backup tools (like ClockWorkMod, etc.), so potentially I can brick my phone if I try to do a backup by applying settings from other models. So I can't risk that, I've googled other people and some have already bricked their phones using ROM Manager, trying to do backups for their unsupported versions.
Sorry that I can't get you a recovery image.
I've decided not to mess with my own LA905 since apparently, there are no stable custom ROMs for it available (unless somebody with coding skills made one, we have to file a request for that, however.)
It's not hopeless, however, I would try searching for Ulefone N9005 firmware as I've mentioned before.

 

[silentptnr]

No sweat. The information you provided was invaluable. I found the correct rom for the Ulefone 9005 and Voila! My LA905 is perfect! For anyone else out there with the LA905, here's the url for the correct rom... needrom dot com/download/star-n9005-note3/. Thanks Again!

 

[anon(8212032)]

Amazing! No wonder they looked the same on Amazon (tried to post a link here so you could check if it looks like your phone but wasn't able to...).
Glad it worked, and thanks for the link, it may save somebody's day too.

 

[silentptnr]

Yes, I spent alot of time looking for the correct rom and I don't know how you knew, but you were right on the money. Thanks again. And yes, hopefully this will help others. Take care.