628 replies to this topic

[SamuriHL]

It MAY.  I offer no guarantees.  

[cmchance]

Here's the error messages I can find so far.

I got the same issue when I tried a couple days ago.

 

 

Then do it manually.  Open sdl.exe in the RSD directory, connect your phone in AP Fastboot mode to USB, then click the button with the ... on it in RSD, go to the MR2 directory, and select the SamuriHL_Downgrade.xml file.  Then flash away.  That's the manual version of step 2.

I will try this later today.  Originally when I tried this process.  I had root with the roll back.  Where I lost root was after the OTA was loaded again.  Once I tried to restore root, there were a bunch of "not found" errors with the SU.  Then once the phone was back up and running and I tried to open the superuser app, a message along the lines of "No SU binary was found...This is a problem!" lol.

I'll try the manual steps with hope that it'll work that way.  If not, I'll provide more info tonight.

[SamuriHL]

Post details if you run into trouble and we'll try to troubleshoot it.  Follow the manual roll back, then root, protect root, do the OTA update, and try to restore.  Restore will give you a failed message on Superuser.apk and that's ok.  But it should restore su.

 

Also, just so people understand, I recommend that people grab the latest SU and Superuser.apk binaries from chainfire.  I get mine as a flashable zip cause I have an unlocked phone.  But extract the su and superuser.apk from the downloaded zip into the root directory of my util and overwrite su and superuser.apk.  This will give you the latest root files.

 

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Grab the zip from there.

[BlackIce000]

Is there a newer busybox than the one in the root dir? if so, what's the easiest way to keep track of the versions.

 

Thanks,

 

Blackice

[PipeHitter]

Adding to the success log:

 

Recently purchased a "new to me" HD Maxx that had 9.20.1 installed, locked BL, and qe code of 0/0 in Recovery mode...supposedly meaning this device had never been rooted. Which is interesting given some of the theories around 9.18.79 vs 9.20.1 depending on MR2/MR4. If we are to believe this device had never been rooted, then MR4 could never had been installed...so why was this device on 9.20.1? Anywho...

 

I followed most of the manual method to roll back, get root, then Voodoo'd. Instead of flashing update I just took it OTA, VZW pushed 9.18.79 to my device, then restored root via Voodoo with no problems.

 

Thanks to tucstwo and anyone else who was involved in this method. I hadn't kept current on XT926 as I was on another device and assumed I would be able to unlock BL. I was very disappointed to find out I waited just a tad too long to buy one and the new OTA killed the exploit. But at least I have root for now. Thanks again.

[ianc125]

I used this same process manually using MR4 for my rollback instead of MR2 then updating back up to 9.20.1 The reason I used MR4 is because I am maintaining 12 of these devices for our company and half of our users took the OTA. So in order to keep all the devices on the same page I had to put the updated ones on 9.20.1 Looking back I would have blocked the updater on all these devices so that when they were out of warranty I could unlock them all. To late now though. I couldn't unlock them before because with how often we end up using the warranty I couldn't risk not having it when we need it. These devices are beautiful though. Having them rooted to use team viewer quick support and tasker with auto remote allows us to do everything we could need to do remotely for every user. Its beautiful. Thanks again for the root after update process. Saved my rear end a lot of trouble with a lot of phones :-)

[ianc125]

I got the same issue when I tried a couple days ago.



I will try this later today. Originally when I tried this process. I had root with the roll back. Where I lost root was after the OTA was loaded again. Once I tried to restore root, there were a bunch of "not found" errors with the SU. Then once the phone was back up and running and I tried to open the superuser app, a message along the lines of "No SU binary was found...This is a problem!" lol.

I'll try the manual steps with hope that it'll work that way. If not, I'll provide more info tonight.

I had the same problem doing this process on a couple phones I had to reroot. I just went through the steps all over again and it always worked second time.

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[livinginkaos]

I used this same process manually using MR4 for my rollback instead of MR2 then updating back up to 9.20.1 The reason I used MR4 is because I am maintaining 12 of these devices for our company and half of our users took the OTA. So in order to keep all the devices on the same page I had to put the updated ones on 9.20.1 Looking back I would have blocked the updater on all these devices so that when they were out of warranty I could unlock them all. To late now though. I couldn't unlock them before because with how often we end up using the warranty I couldn't risk not having it when we need it. These devices are beautiful though. Having them rooted to use team viewer quick support and tasker with auto remote allows us to do everything we could need to do remotely for every user. Its beautiful. Thanks again for the root after update process. Saved my ass a lot of trouble with a lot of phones :-)

Nice! These are the good stories where a user understands the process well enough to implement it in a way to suit their specific need. Good on ya !

[cmchance]

Post details if you run into trouble and we'll try to troubleshoot it.  Follow the manual roll back, then root, protect root, do the OTA update, and try to restore.  Restore will give you a failed message on Superuser.apk and that's ok.  But it should restore su.

 

Also, just so people understand, I recommend that people grab the latest SU and Superuser.apk binaries from chainfire.  I get mine as a flashable zip cause I have an unlocked phone.  But extract the su and superuser.apk from the downloaded zip into the root directory of my util and overwrite su and superuser.apk.  This will give you the latest root files.

 

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Grab the zip from there.

Got it!  I basically ran the whole thing manually this go round and it appears to be rooted!  Everything went well this go round.  I think the issue last time was with protecting root.  All is good though!

 

Thanks a lot for y'alls work on this!  The last time I was rooted was back when I had my Droid X (the good days of rooting and unlocking lol).  I planned on doing it to this phone eventually, just sucks I waited to long and now I can't unlock it.

One question, and excuse me being naive, but when we roll back to the 9.16, why can't we unroot at that point?  Is it because the patch from the 9.18/20 version is still in place whether you roll back or not?

[SamuriHL]

What do you mean "unroot"?  If you roll back with the FXZ, you are unrooted.  Any time you flash the system partition, you are unrooted. It will not reset the root counter in recovery, but, I don't think that was your question?  

[cmchance]

What do you mean "unroot"?  If you roll back with the FXZ, you are unrooted.  Any time you flash the system partition, you are unrooted. It will not reset the root counter in recovery, but, I don't think that was your question?  

Yup.  Typo there.  I meant unlock.

[SamuriHL]

I explained this somewhere already but I'll explain again
The update flashes the tz (trusted zone) partition. Even on unlocked phones that partition can't be downgraded. When you downgrade you're not fully downgrading all partitions. Only the ones we can flash... Enough to get root and upgrade again. The unlock exploit requires the tz from the last update to work.

Etched in blood by a katana

[cmchance]

I explained this somewhere already but I'll explain again
The update flashes the tz (trusted zone) partition. Even on unlocked phones that partition can't be downgraded. When you downgrade you're not fully downgrading all partitions. Only the ones we can flash... Enough to get root and upgrade again. The unlock exploit requires the tz from the last update to work.

Etched in blood by a katana

I remember reading that earlier in this thread but I did not understand at that time.  I do understand what you're saying now.  Thanks again for all you've done to help out the cause.

[ianc125]

I did try taking the tz partition from MR4 and adding it to the system update zip for 9.20.1 and installing that after I rolled back to MR4 to see if maybe the tz of MR4 would flash with the update to 9.20.1

 

I didnt think it would work but it didnt break anything trying it just errored out when trying to update to 9.20.1

I dont know what im doing enough to help to much here but let me now if theres anything I can help with.

[Boucher187]

I was able to roll back to 9.16.6 and ROOT my phone.  I also have Voodoo OTA Rootkeeper installed and active.  I got the PUSH from Verizon this am to UPGRADE to 9.20.1 and I declined it.  Will I be safe if I take this upgrade if I have Voodoo installed?

[SamuriHL]

In theory, yes.  If it doesn't work, roll back again and take another attempt.  

[crepiduse]

Does anyone know if the update blew the qfuse to permanently disable unlocking?

[Memnoch73]

Does anyone know if the update blew the qfuse to permanently disable unlocking?

 

The update kills the unlock method.

[crepiduse]

I understand that it patches the hole,  but did it flag it to permanently disable unlocking? 

[SamuriHL]

It has nothing to do with the qFuse.  The unlock worked by utilizing a security hole in the Trust Zone (hilarious irony) that allows code to run as secure.  This was used to run the code to blow the qFuse that unlocks the bootloader.  It's the same process that happens when a Developer Edition is unlocked "the proper way".  Now the TZ has been patched to disallow the code to run as secure, so there is no way to blow the qFuse to unlock the bootloader.