About to root my S4, still unsure

[ljredeye]

So I had a wild hair up my **** to root and flash my S4 with a GPE Lollipop ROM, but not yet. I researched how until my eyes dried up but they are hydrated if you were wondering. Now, I love lollipop, and was happy that the GPE phone has it. Odd enough that my phone went quiet on updates besides the ones getting it overseas across the Internet. Even T-Mo is not showing it on their updates page.

Now I have a T-Mobile version and am quite happy with WiFi Calling due to my living situation. I know that I can use Hangouts to forward my T-Mo calls to Hangouts with the ROM, but really, I have my doubts. Is Hangouts reliable? Will it ring all the time or send calls straight to voicemail and tick off people? Will Hangouts receive texts over Wifi when forwarded (how I'm not sure)? I need some answers so I'll feel better about rooting.

Oh and the ROM I found is this one.

GPE Android 5.0.1 Lollipop ROM for Galaxy S4! | GalaxyS4Root.com

 

[Rukbat]

Download the stock ROM. Flash whichever ROMs you want to try. If you don't find one you like, you can always flash the stock one back. (Or install TWRP, back up the system, back up the data, then play with ROMs. If you don't like any of them, you can put the original system and data back. (And you can back up your data any time it's changed enough that you should make a new backup.)

See [Samsung] How to flash Stock ROM via ODIN if you need a tutorial about Odin.

 

[dlalonde]

Be aware though that the Galaxy S4 comes with a thing called Knox Security. Rooting or flashing a ROM or a custom recovery will trip a switch labeled KNOX WARRANTY VOID (which can be seen when you enter download mode) which will be set to 1. Once this is done, it is impossible to set it back to 0. This MAY void your warranty (if your carrier checks this or if you need to send your phone to Samsung that could also check this).

I wasn't aware of this because my previous Samsung Galaxy Ace did not have that so I wanted to make sure you knew.

 

[ljredeye]

Good to know. Thanks. But I'm almost done paying off the phone and was thinking of getting a Moto G as backup. Thinking, not yet about to go forward with it.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[dlalonde]

Oh then I think you should go right ahead. It's always fun to tinker with different ROMs!

Be careful as one should always be and backup everything everytime. Very important!

 

[ljredeye]

Don't worry, did that to my DInc2 without backing up. I learned the hard way by going back to my Droid 2.

Now that's a nightmare trip lol.

 

[worktorest]

Lol I rooted mine within the first week of getting it. Have fun with yours.

 

[ljredeye]

Okay, I worked on rooting my phone, but I kept coming up with issues. Every time I attempted to root, the phone kicked back and denied it. I do have Heimdall installed. Never used it because I have no clue how to flash TWRP or root with TWRP without breaking stuff. Also, I have a Mac.