[How-to] Guide to Rooting with software version LS670ZVC

[lifelessraptor]

I had that same issue getting stuck at step 7. Try adb reboot recovery, select update.zip again, then reboot.

 

[lifelessraptor]

I can get it to run the rageagainstthecage file but then it disconnects my device and will not reconnect. Any ideas?

 

[sfhub]

Which version of the firmware are you running? If you have installed the OTA VC update from Sprint, that is the behavior you'll see. You can't root after installing the OTA VC update. You can only root if you install the VC update using the LG Software Updater tool.

If that situation applies to you, you'll need to revert to V9 before doing anything else. Instructions are in my signature.

 

[smccloud]

Thanks go out to cordell, DCJoe, kingdavidbaker for suggesting this method and working through the procedures, KSmithInNY for comments making this more readable and of course zefie for his unroot procedure and archive of the firmware cabs.

High level summary
1) Install the LG Software Updater Tool (link to LG Software Updater Tool) - the KP500 tool below uses LG Software Updater to write the firmware to your phone
2) Force flash the V9 firmware using the KP500 tool (see below)
3) Follow the "How to Unroot" thread
(start from step 1, it will tell you how to revert to V8, restore the pre-VC recovery partition and upgrade to any version you want from there, if you are an advanced user, you can skip some steps and do the alternate procedure in the reference section)

Details for how to Force Flash V9 using KP500
(BACKUP your app data if you care about it, the following assumes you already installed USB drivers for your phone to get adb working)
a) make sure you have at least 600MB free on the drive containing your windows installation, specifically the drive that contains Documents and Settings (or ProgramData on Vista)
b) disable standby, hibernate, and any screensavers
c) make sure your phone is fully charged
d) turn on USB debugging mode on your phone

e) download the KP500 tool zip file and unzip to your C: drive (attached, windows utility, tested in WinXP) You should have a folder

f) download the V9 cab file from zefie's archive below (LS670ZV9_20.S9_20.P60671.cab) and place in same folder as (e)

g) open a windows command prompt

h) from command prompt rename LS670ZV9_20.S9_20.P60671.cab as LS670ZV9.cab

i) OPTIONAL: run a checksum on the V9 cab file to verify file integrity (checksum tool link) Unzip the fsum utility and place fsum.exe in the same folder/directory as (e) From your command prompt type

expected checksum - make sure both the checksum (1st column) and filename (2nd column) match


j) connect your phone using USB cable

k) from your command prompt, run the KP500 exectuable

l) choose option J - Flash with assistant (file .cab)
m) when it asks for model # - LS670
n) when it asks for cab file - LS670ZV9.cab
o) when it asks for version - LS670ZV9_20

p) you will see "Loading..." and it should bring up the LG Software Updater Tool
if the tool aborts and you see this error near the end of the log

then you may have renamed the cab file incorrectly, see if this post applies.

q) let it run, do not touch your phone until complete, it'll take around 15 minutes

r) when the flash portion is complete phone will reboot and you'll see Android on your screen, this possibly could behave like a first boot, meaning it'll take a while to build everything from scratch, 3 minutes or less. You'll eventually see the Android startup home screen. This may trick you into thinking the flash is done. Don't be tricked. Regardless of whether the LG Software Updater tool is at 100% or not, do not touch the phone yet, it still needs to reload your NVRAM items onto the phone. Do NOT touch the phone until it says completed

s) once the LG Software Updater tool says completed, you should be at the standard android startup screen, congrats, you now have V9 (possibly with a VC recovery partition, which gets restored to a V9 recovery partition as part of the unroot thread) If you have no intentions of running VC OS/Radio, then you can stop here. z4root.apk will give you one-click root. However if you ever want to get root with the VC OS/Radio, you should continue with the next steps.

t) exit the LG Software Update Tool and KP500 (option Q)

u) follow the "How to Unroot" thread from step 1 and you can get to whichever version you want, as part of that process you will restore the V9 recovery partition, which is the key to allowing you to root after using the LG Software Updater Tool to install the VC update.

v) re-enable standby, hibernation, and/or screensavers if you need to


Reference:
zefie's archive of v7,v8,v9,vC cab files for Optimus S:
Index of /zefie/files/cell/LGLS670/roms/LGNPST Recovery/cab - Mystic Midnight Files

How-to Unroot thread:
http://forum.androidcentral.com/lg-...45403-how-unroot-your-phone-return-stock.html

LG Ally instructions which inspired this solution here:
How-To: Flash Stock LG Rom on LG Ally

Stock V9 recovery image (part of larger zip file containing V8 NANDROID backup) from "How to unroot thread":
http://files.mysticmidnight.net/zefie/files/cell/LG670/roms/nandroid-thunderc-V8-STOCK.zip

LG Software Updater Tool
LG Software Updater Application Download

File checksum tool
SlavaSoft FSUM - Fast File Integrity Checker

How to root V9 Optimus S thread
http://forum.androidcentral.com/lg-optimus-s-rooting-roms-hacks/43108-how-root-lg-optimus-s.html

z4root one-click root that works with V9 Optimus S (won't work with VC Optimus S)
[APP] z4root - xda-developers

stock V9 Recovery image
http://files.mysticmidnight.net/zefie/files/cell/LGLS670/roms/V9_LG_Stock_Recovery.zip

Flash Image tool
http://files.mysticmidnight.net/zefie/files/cell/LGLS670/flash_image.zip

Substitute these steps to Force Flash VC
f) download VC cab (LS670ZVC_11.SC_11.P60674.cab)
h) ren LS670ZVC_11.SC_11.P60674.cab LS670ZVC.cab
i) expected checksum - 579bfcf1dc2309dd71580d246c954d7f *LS670ZVC.cab
n) cab file - LS670ZVC.cab
o) version - LS670ZVC_11

Substitute these steps to Force Flash V8
f) download V8 cab (LS670ZV8_23.S8_23.P60671.cab)
h) ren LS670ZV8_23.S8_23.P60671.cab LS670ZV8.cab
i) expected checksum - cb646c7152cd8e1cdbb2d462534fe89a *LS670ZV8.cab
n) cab file - LS670ZV8.cab
o) version - LS670ZV8_23

Manually flashing stock V9 Recovery image (requires root)
UNZIP flash_image and stock V9 recovery.img to /sdcard


Alternate procedure for *advanced users* (these instructions are written at a summary level so you need to know some basic terminology/techniques):
1) Force Flash V9 using the KP500 tool
2) Root using the rageagainstthecage exploit or z4root
3) Manually flash the stock V9 Recovery image (see Reference section above)
4) Use LG Software Updater tool to update to VC
5) Root using the rageagainstthecage exploit from the Recovery Partition (ie first post of this thread)

(in step 4, you could use KP500 to Force Flash VC instead of using the LG Software Updater Tool, this would save you from having the LG Software Updater tool download a 96MB cab if you already have the VC cab downloaded yourself)

Anyone know where to get the actual MSI install files for the LG Software Updater? Port 9002 is blocked at work and therefore I can't install it

 

[sfhub]

Anyone know where to get the actual MSI install files for the LG Software Updater? Port 9002 is blocked at work and therefore I can't install it

You might be able to use a free PPTP VPN service to bypass that restriction:
Setup Howto

 

[smccloud]

You might be able to use a free PPTP VPN service to bypass that restriction:
Setup Howto

And that site is blocked at work

I will just have to install my own PPTP server again

Why does LG have to use port 9002 instead of 80?

 

[smccloud]

Nevermind, second attempt worked.

 

[sfhub]

Got VC installed, but I don't get adb access in the recovery

Did you run the V8->V9 update.zip (step 4)?

Until you do that, the stock recovery partition won't have /system mounted and adb on the phone side won't be able to run because it'll be looking for /system/bin/sh, which isn't there because it isn't mounted.

 

[smccloud]

Did you run the V8->V9 update.zip (step 4)?

Until you do that, the stock recovery partition won't have /system mounted and adb on the phone side won't be able to run because it'll be looking for /system/bin/sh, which isn't there because it isn't mounted.

Yeah, I did. now is the rageagainstthecage fun (i.e. run it 6+ times like my phone always requires)

 

[sfhub]

Yeah I know what you mean. It always took more than a few times for the rage race condition to hit gold for me too on V9. On the V9 Recovery partition it was much quicker though. Usually first or second shot it went through.

 

[lguser]

Hey guys my phone is all rooted with custom room and the VC version. But when I turned the wifi on (flashed to metro PCS and have not enable data yet) it keeps coming up with the system update to VC. Under the options of the phone it shows VC and my LG update tool shows that it is all update so I do not know what is going on. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[sharpie.100]

Hey guys, after force flashing the V9 firmware, I've lost my Market app. Any idea how I can bring it back?

 

[sfhub]

Are you talking about the actual market app or the apps you downloaded from the market?

If the former, if you do a privacy->reset, all that apps that were stock on the phone should show up. Only do a privacy->reset if you are running the stock LG recovery or you might brick your phone.

 

[sharpie.100]

It's the actual market app that is gone, all I have left is the shortcut and when try to launch it I get "could not launch the requested activity." It's like it was erased..

 

[wc878]

worked for me, was a little scary, lol, the hardest part was getting the cmd and sdk to work

 

[sfhub]

It's the actual market app that is gone, all I have left is the shortcut and when try to launch it I get "could not launch the requested activity." It's like it was erased..

Backup your stuff and do a wipe data/cache from the recovery menu.

 

[tyrela]

Im getting an error here is my adb session.

C:\android\adb>adb reboot recovery

C:\android\adb>adb push rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin /sdcard/rageagainstthecage
752 KB/s (5392 bytes in 0.007s)

C:\android\adb>adb push su /sdcard/su
2564 KB/s (26264 bytes in 0.010s)

C:\android\adb>adb push busybox /sdcard/busybox
3785 KB/s (1926944 bytes in 0.497s)

C:\android\adb>adb shell
$ /system/bin/chmod 4755 /sdcard/rageagainstthecage
/system/bin/chmod 4755 /sdcard/rageagainstthecage
Unable to chmod /sdcard/rageagainstthecage: Operation not permitted
$ /system/bin/chmod 4755 /sdcard/busybox
/system/bin/chmod 4755 /sdcard/busybox
Unable to chmod /sdcard/busybox: Operation not permitted
$ cd /sdcard
cd /sdcard
$ ./rageagainstthecage
./rageagainstthecage
[*] CVE-2010-EASY Android local root exploit (C) 2010 by 743C

[*] checking NPROC limit ...
[+] RLIMIT_NPROC={3372, 3372}
[*] Searching for adb ...
[+] Found adb as PID 62
[*] Spawning children. Dont type anything and wait for reset!
[*]
[*] If you like what we are doing you can send us PayPal money to
[*] 7-4-3-C@web.de so we can compensate time, effort and HW costs.
[*] If you are a company and feel like you profit from our work,
[*] we also accept donations > 1000 USD!
[*]
[*] adb connection will be reset. restart adb server on desktop and re-login.
$
C:\android\adb>adb shell
error: device not found

C:\android\adb>adb shell
error: device not found

C:\android\adb>adb shell
error: device not found

any ideas?

 

[sfhub]

You probably got the VC update OTA instead of using the LG Software Updater tool. Read the big highlighted red text at the beginning of the first post.

 

[tyrela]

I did originally but then backed it down to v8 and followed the directions to go back to original and install via the updater. Took a long time but I did get there.

 

[sfhub]

I did originally but then backed it down to v8 and followed the directions to go back to original and install via the updater

Then you probably didn't restore the V9 Recovery partition (steps 26-30 of the Unroot thread) or your restoration wasn't successful.

It sounds like you have the VC Recovery partition still on your unit. None of the steps you followed will touch the Recovery partition except steps 26-30 of the Unroot thread. You need to make sure those steps were successfully done.