Rooting on Android 4.1.2

[lou1210]

Hi everyone. After 5 months, I decided to come back and try to root my phone again.

First, I'm on JB 4.1.2 with my VZW GS3. I apologize if there is already a thread, and if someone could point me there, it would be great.

Can rooting still be done with this version of Android? Is the same method I used before I used ODIN to go back to stock still going to work? It's late and the little searching I did, told me that the old methods wouldn't work under JB...

Thanks for the help.

 

[blade22222]

Try this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2046439

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums

 

[lou1210]

All - I get to this step.... Step 4 - Rooting Your Device and Unlocking Your Bootloader and every option I choose, tells me that the signature failed and the installation is aborted. Can someone tell me what I did wrong, if it can be fixed, and how?

I was once rooted before, and went back to stock using ODIN in the past. Will that have an effect on it?

When I got to Step 3, I used these instructions: ?Flash the VRALEC Bootchain using ODIN v3.07 - My phone shows VRBMB1 - should I have used that boot chain instead? Can I still flash it using ODIN, over what is already there?

I can get my phone to boot normally, but when it boots it just shows custom at the bottom. I haven't bricked it or anything, I'm just concerned I haven't messed up the root process all together.

Thanks for the help...

 

[Nicholi2789]

All - I get to this step.... Step 4 - Rooting Your Device and Unlocking Your Bootloader and every option I choose, tells me that the signature failed and the installation is aborted. Can someone tell me what I did wrong, if it can be fixed, and how?

I was once rooted before, and went back to stock using ODIN in the past. Will that have an effect on it?

When I got to Step 3, I used these instructions: ?Flash the VRALEC Bootchain using ODIN v3.07 - My phone shows VRBMB1 - should I have used that boot chain instead? Can I still flash it using ODIN, over what is already there?

I can get my phone to boot normally, but when it boots it just shows custom at the bottom. I haven't bricked it or anything, I'm just concerned I haven't messed up the root process all together.

Thanks for the help...

I used that same method to root and unlock my phone a while back. It works great. I don't know how familiar you are with this stuff so for the sake of expediency I'm just going to assume your brand new. First thing. It is important to verify that all your downloads got downloaded correctly. Sometimes during downloads they will get messed up. It's happened to me a few times. You need to verify the md5 sum of each download that you got to ensure they are good. The md5 sum is listed right under the download link in that thread. And if you don't have a md5 matching tool just search for one on google. They are easy to find.
Next. the VRALEC bootchain is the first thing you flash because it allows for the flashing of the custom recovery. Yes, even if you are on VRMB1 you need to flash it or else you can't get CWM. I would suggest watching DroidmodderX's video tutorial that's linked in the thread. It really helped me because some things in the thread aren't specific enough. To be safe I would suggest re downloading the SuperSU file on your computer then transfer it to the external SD card on your phone when it's done and you've verified the md5 sum.
Now that you have the SuperSU file on your ext SD card, boot into recovery (Volume up, home, power together) and scroll to install zip from sd card>install zip from external SD card> to whereever you put it and install it. Now you should see a script running. When it's done reboot (if it doesn't automatically). You should have a new app called SuperSU that's your superuser app and means you are sucessfully rooted.
The last part is easy. All you are doing is flashing back the stock bootchain to return to your original partitions. And you don't HAVE to do it but it is definetely good to do and will help you avoid complications. If you are coming from 4.1.2 flash the VRMB1 bootchain. If you are on 4.1.1 flash the VRBLK3 bootchain. And your done.
Yes, my advice is to make sure that you SuperSU zip is good. Nine times out of ten if you followed the directions and it's still not working that's why. I've gotten TONS of bad downloads from downloading things on my phone. Even happens sometimes on my computer too. Best thing to do is just be diligent about verifying those md5 sums.
Good luck, hope i helped!!

 

[lou1210]

Can you suggests sites that I can find this file? I verified the MD5 sum was right below the file and downloaded the files from the links here I downloaded them 2 or 3 times from there and each time get the same error. I even tried a different site.

I appreciate your assumption, but I was previously rooted on my VZQ G3S and I also had an HTC Thunderbolt that I had previously rooted. I'm new to this method of rooting since the last time I did this I was on ICS, I think. This method is very new to me. I have been reading the sites and making sure I completely understand everything. My phone is currently on Android 4.1.2. I used the VRALEC bootchain as suggested in the instructions. I made sure to follow them exactly. I'm just not sure what else to do.

 

[Nicholi2789]

Can you suggests sites that I can find this file? I verified the MD5 sum was right below the file and downloaded the files from the links here I downloaded them 2 or 3 times from there and each time get the same error. I even tried a different site.

I appreciate your assumption, but I was previously rooted on my VZQ G3S and I also had an HTC Thunderbolt that I had previously rooted. I'm new to this method of rooting since the last time I did this I was on ICS, I think. This method is very new to me. I have been reading the sites and making sure I completely understand everything. My phone is currently on Android 4.1.2. I used the VRALEC bootchain as suggested in the instructions. I made sure to follow them exactly. I'm just not sure what else to do.

Sorry for making an assumption.
So you getting a failed download error when you download it? Or are you getting an E signature verification error? If it's a bad download then you will just have to keep trying until you get a good one. Try a different browser and failing that try a different wifi connetion. So you are able to boot into recovery just fine though right? And you downloaded the SuperSU+Unlock bootloader file right?
Let me get this straight just so I know I'm hearing you correctly. You followed the instructions and flashed the VRALEC bootchain first. Then you unchecked auto-reboot and flashed the Clockworkmod recovery file and pulled the battery and booted into recovery. It's just now that your in recovery when you try to install the SuperSU file you get the signature verification error.
I'm hearing all this correctly right?

 

[lou1210]

Yes. You did. After replying to you I decided to take your great advice and go find another file. I found one with an md5 filename (CWM) and reflashed and got it to work. I've heard a few issues with cwm and haven't yet had time to find an md5 of twrp. What are your thoughts about twrp vs cwm?

Also I want to try carbon rom but was curious what other stable efficient roms are available. I also downloaded miui. Just not sure what I want to use so I haven't flashed yet.

I realize I'm going through a lot and not totally sure I want to flash yet. I may try to unroot if I change my mind. Its a long shot I Will do that but if I do, how do I unroot without having to flash a different stock rom with ODIN? Is there a simple unroot process in the unlikely event I decide to reverse what I did?

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3

 

[Nicholi2789]

Yes. You did. After replying to you I decided to take your great advice and go find another file. I found one with an md5 filename (CWM) and reflashed and got it to work. I've heard a few issues with cwm and haven't yet had time to find an md5 of twrp. What are your thoughts about twrp vs cwm?

Also I want to try carbon rom but was curious what other stable efficient roms are available. I also downloaded miui. Just not sure what I want to use so I haven't flashed yet.

I realize I'm going through a lot and not totally sure I want to flash yet. I may try to unroot if I change my mind. Its a long shot I Will do that but if I do, how do I unroot without having to flash a different stock rom with ODIN? Is there a simple unroot process in the unlikely event I decide to reverse what I did?

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3

It's okay man. I guarantee once you flash a rom you won't have any thoughts about returning to stock. There re lots of ways to do it. The easiest being flash a stock image. Just search you will find lots of ways. So you were able to get it going and your rooted and unlocked?
I was going to upload my copy of superSU unlock to Dropbox so you can download mine. I KNOW it's good.

Anyways, I would recommend against TWRP personally. Some people swear by it, but more people swear by CWMR.
TWRP has more problems than CWMR. I've been using Clockworkmod touch recovery since day one and it is the best. I've never had one single problem with it. Everything works perfectly and the interface is so easy to use. I think it's are to say the majority will agree with me. Some versions of TWRP don't support things you need to do on newer roms as well. CWRM for the win man. You wont regret it.
About roms.
If this is your first rom flash on the Galaxy S3 I would HIGHLY suggest trying a Touchwiz based Rom first. The AOSP roms are nice and all but they can have alot of complications sometimes and are much more difficult to adjust to especially when your used to stock touchwiz. They can be a bit more buggy as well since they aren't made for the S3 like touchwiz is. I've tried Carbon Rom and while the vanilla android experience is nice, I honestly prefer touchwiz roms. I like the functionality.
I would recommend against Miui rom personally. It's a good Rom I just had trouble with it. And alot of its features don't mesh well with other stuff.
The first Rom I flashed was an AOSP rom and as a new rom flasher I was kinda lost at sea because it's so different an the stock experience, and like I said they can have alot more bugs.
I can make a couple good touchwiz rom recommendations.
The second Rom I flashed was Jelly Beans build 14 (its build 15 now) and that Rom still remains one of my favorites.
It has all the nice features of Touchwiz like palm swipe to screenshot and lots of other stuff, but it has the awesome look of AOSP. Which I love. It doesn't have any bugs that I found either. You also get to choose between two different kernels as well. lean kernel and KT474 Kernel.
I would recommend lean kernel, that's the one I use on every TW Rom.
The other good thing about TW roms is that they have an Aroma installer (most do). Which I'm not sure if you know what that is. Basically before installing the rom you get to go through and choose what features, kernel, and apps you want or don't want on the rom. It's amazing.
You can find that rom here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1973982
My other recommendation if you don't want Beans would be Synergy.
Synergy is one of the more popular TW Roms and I have to say it is pretty smooth. It also comes with Multi-Window. Which is always cool.
it's here :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1792499
And the Rom I'm on now is MOAR.
I just flashed it yesterday and I'm impressed. It's really fast and stable, comes with multi window and there are infinite numbers of themes to choose. Great rom.
Though if you are really set on getting an AOSP rom instead I would recommend Liquid smooth over Carbon. Liquid smooth has alot less bugs and more features. Though I still prefer TW roms.
Anyways, sorry for the ramble. I could talk about Roms for days....
Like i said go with Clockworkmod recovery touch, not TWRP. If you need files I can upload any of those to my Dropbox and link them to you if you need them. Just let me know.


Sent from my Motors Symergized Galaxy S3 via tapatalk 2

 

[lou1210]

First - thank you for all of the great detail. I appreciate it.

Yes, I've been able to get CWM to install on my phone and appreciate the offer to post a download that works.

Next, I would like to hear more about the ROM's available. I have been itching to get a 4.2 ROM and now that I read they are already working on Android 5, I'm even more excited. I hope the GS3 can handle it!

I have flashed before and I've tried several roms. I've used CM10, I've used Jelly Beans, I've also tried liquid smooth and MIUI. I saw Carbon and figured it was 4.2 and really liked the screen shots. I'm certainly open for additional ROM choices and have already started to download both of your suggestions. I noticed that Carbon has nightlies. I might even see if I can find a new working CM10.1 ROM too. I'm very open to suggestions. When I had my old HTC Thunderbolt, I was a ROM flashing fool. My wife couldn't believe how many different ROMs I was trying. And on a side note, I finally got her moved over to a GS3 from a Crackberry. LOL

I'd be very curious to hear what other ROMs you already have files downloaded for, or the links available. I'm open to trying things. I just have to make sure I back up my wireless access points and my Bluetooth Sync... LOL... I just got a car that can interface with my phone and it would/could get very annoying to have to constantly pair the car and phone every time I change ROMs.

If you have any more suggestions, please let me know. Thanks again for all of the details and the links and your advice.

 

[Nicholi2789]

One massive suggestion I'm going to make is download Titanium backup if you don't already have it. It makes backing up your apps so easy. It's the rom flashers dream tool. I use it and back up my apps w/ their data to my external SD card or Dropbox (i use external SD the most because it's quicker and you don't need a network connection) then I backup my launcher setup (nova prime) and backup my wifi points, blutooth, messaging history and user dictionary with Carbon (again to my ext sd) then I can do a full wipe to install the new rom, and once it's going all I have to do is sign into my Gmail account and restore from titanium and Carbon and I'm done. It takes me about ten minutes to flash a new rom and have it set up the way I like it.
Anyways, hmm. Maybe AOSP is for you. Personally I'm not a big fan, unless I get a nexus or something. Nightlies are cool but you have to remember they are experimental and often have lots of bugs. I prefer to have one stable rom that I can theme. And I like alot of the TW stuff.

You don't even want to know how many Roms I have downloaded man...
I have a 1 terabyte external hard drive that I download and store everything on, and a 100 gb Dropbox account.
I have about 30 roms on my Hard drive (aosp and TW) and a nandroid backup for all the ones I like. I also have countless themes, kernels and mods saved on it.
I'm a crazy about themeing. Once I find a Rom I like i will spend a few days finding a theme I like. That's why I lone MOAR so much.
It has a built in themer called morphology. You do it on the install. You can either design your own custom theme from a to of different choices, or you can choose one of wasabis 36 pre made themes which are amazing.
And at any time you can go back to morphology and change JUST your theme without having to re flash the rom. It even gives you an option to backup your theme before you change it just in case you don't like the new one. It's awesome.
My top five TW roms are :
jelly beans build 15
Synergy r484
MOAR
Axis RLS12
Clean rom 6
But if I have to choose a favorite AOSP I would definetely be liquid smooth or carbon.
Sent from my Motors Symergized Galaxy S3 via tapatalk 2

 

[Nicholi2789]

Oh by the way, I'm sure you already figured it out but here is the link for the SUPERSU file. I uploaded it so I might as well link it out in case anyone else reads this and needs it.

http://db.tt/C8idrgQp

Sent from my MOAR'D Galaxy S3 via tapatalk 2

 

[lou1210]

Well I flashed a ROM to my phone. Before doing so, I ran a back up of stock. After flashing the new ROM and customizing it, I ran another backup. I went back to check to see if I had both and it turns out it overwrote my stock backup. Never saw cwm do that before and didn't see it coming either. I'm slightly annoyed at that. Live and learn I suppose.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Nicholi2789]

That's weird. When i do Nandroids I do "backup to external SD card" and it stores them in a Clockworkmod folder. It doesn't over write then for me it just keeps putting then all in the same folder til I have no more room.. I also go into my file manager and rename them to something I'll remember. For some weird reason CWMR adds a random date to them so they are hard to keep track of. I just label them "BeansB153-5-13" or whatever rom it is.
Maybe try re labeling it and see if it still overwrites it.
I also move a copy of my important Nandroids to my desktop and my external hard drive. I'm super cautious about it.

 

[lou1210]

I found it extremely weird. And the part I'm kicking myself for is I do I.t. work for a living and am constantly preaching backups to the people I support. That's why I ran it. I found a stock ROM of android 4.1.2 and suppose if I desperately need one I can use Odin to get one back. I'm not overly concerned about it at the moment. This time I let it back up to my on board SD card but now that I know it can be sent to my external I will probably do that next time. Like I said, live and learn. I just didn't expect it from CWM. I do like the carbon ROM that I installed and have also downloaded cm10.1, synergy, jelly beans, moar and a few others to my desktop. I might experiment and try different ROMs. I was a flashing fool on my last phone. Eventually I found a ROM I liked and stuck with it. The new version of Android is producing a lot of cool and creative ROMs so I may keep trying until I find one I like.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Nicholi2789]

I found it extremely weird. And the part I'm kicking myself for is I do I.t. work for a living and am constantly preaching backups to the people I support. That's why I ran it. I found a stock ROM of android 4.1.2 and suppose if I desperately need one I can use Odin to get one back. I'm not overly concerned about it at the moment. This time I let it back up to my on board SD card but now that I know it can be sent to my external I will probably do that next time. Like I said, live and learn. I just didn't expect it from CWM. I do like the carbon ROM that I installed and have also downloaded cm10.1, synergy, jelly beans, moar and a few others to my desktop. I might experiment and try different ROMs. I was a flashing fool on my last phone. Eventually I found a ROM I liked and stuck with it. The new version of Android is producing a lot of cool and creative ROMs so I may keep trying until I find one I like.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Yeah I would definetely recommend backing up to external SD card. Because as soon as you flash another rom you will need to do a full wipe before installing and boom, there goes your backup. That is unless you backup to your PC as well.
I got a 32 gb ext sd and i always keep a good nandroid and a copy of whatever rom I'm using on there at all times so if something happens and I get stuck in a boot loop or something I can just boot into recovery and either restore, or reflash.
Sent from my MOAR'D Galaxy S3 via tapatalk 2

 

[lou1210]

That explains why it went away. My stock backup went to my on board SD card. When I factory reset it went. Again, lesson learned. Thanks for the advice. I'm copying my existing back up to my external SD card on my phone. Thankfully I have a secondary SD card should I need one. The lightbulb just came on! Thanks again.

Sent from my rooted Verizon Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk.

 

[Nicholi2789]

That explains why it went away. My stock backup went to my on board SD card. When I factory reset it went. Again, lesson learned. Thanks for the advice. I'm copying my existing back up to my external SD card on my phone. Thankfully I have a secondary SD card should I need one. The lightbulb just came on! Thanks again.

Sent from my rooted Verizon Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk.

Good, glad to help. Yeah I'm kinda crazy about backups. To the point that it's kind Rediculous. I still have a nandroid of my stock rom from when right after I rooted and unlocked it. And that was a WHILE ago. I figure if I ever need to return to stock I can just restore that. Hehe.

Sent from my MOAR'D Galaxy S3 via tapatalk 2

 

[lou1210]

Two problems so far with carbon. When I edit pictures the phone freezes and reboots and I've had one random reboot. Overall I like it so far though. I will see what else is buggy and may flash something else.

Sent from my rooted Verizon Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk.

 

[Nicholi2789]

Two problems so far with carbon. When I edit pictures the phone freezes and reboots and I've had one random reboot. Overall I like it so far though. I will see what else is buggy and may flash something else.

Sent from my rooted Verizon Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk.

Yeah that's the thing with AOSP. Have you tried using your GPS and blue tooth to make sure they work properly? I could never get a GPS lock on Carbon.

 

[lou1210]

GPS works fine. Found 16 satellites. Bluetooth I have not tried yet.

Sent from my rooted Verizon Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk.