Description: This is a simple guide that will allow you to easily root your Verizon Galaxy S4 device without having to wipe your device or flash a full prerooted factory image. This method works using a leaked prerelease kernel (provided by user sextape) and root method (provided by user djrbliss). Only change is I have modified the Motochopper root method to use the latest SuperSU instead.
Step 1 - Preparation
Download and Install Samsung Official USB Drivers - Link
Boot back to Android and verifying everything is still working and kernel has flashed successfully
Step 3 - Rooting Your Device
Verify in Security setting on your device that you have "Unknown sources" checked
Verify in Developer options setting on your device that you have "USB debugging" checked
Verify in Developer options setting on your device that you have "Verify apps via USB" unchecked
Connect your phone to your computer and open "Run.bat" file from the location you have extracted motochopper to
If successful, after your phone reboots, open SuperSU app and let the binary update itself to the latest ***IMPORTANT*** - You will loose root on the next step if you do not do this.
Once complete, just open a root application and verify that is able to access root properly
Boot back to Android and verifying everything is still working and kernel has flashed successfully
After your phone boots back to Android, you should now be fully rooted and on the fully original stock firmware as the device came
Credits
Credit goes to sextape for providing the VRUAMD2 Prerelease Kernel (Original Source)
Credit goes to sextape for providing the VRUAMDK Stock Firmware and Kernel (Original Source)
Credit goes to djrbliss for creating Motochopper Root Exploit Tool (Original Post)
Credit goes to cnlson for providing ftp filehosting (via PM)
Credit goes to ChainsDD for creating Superuser (Original Source) Credit goes to Open1your1eyes0 for the guide i just brought it here
Please note: Credit for this method goes entirely to the users who have created these tools and provided the files/guide.
Thanks for sharing this guide Beans! I'm loving this phone but could really go for some beans style theming ;-) ;-)
Way too much white background on stock!
Is anyone having problems after using this method? I have two things right now.
My phone was lagging and the typing was really struggling. Now that seems to be working fine but I am worried it will happen again.
Main thing is I noticed my hovering is not working. When I hover my finger of the screen it does nothing now and before (like in the gallery) i could haver my finger over and I would get previews. Thanks in advance.
I've done this and have root but file manager apps are failing when using root explorer modes. Is this a known issue or should I flash the old kernel and try again?
Yeah, I was wondering the same thing for this device, in general. I've been floating between here and xda to get my fix... Definitely not as much activity as the Galaxy Nexus when I first got it.
followed the instructions, thing is rooted, running Rootbox now. One thing that is confusing about those instructions are step three says to connect your device to a computer. Now wouldn't my phone already be connected to the computer since I just Odin flashed the pre-release kernel? Made me think that for some reason it shouldn't have been connected to the computer before I ran the motochopper fix thing.
Only if you're already rooted and have recovery installed and have not taken the ota update. The latest vzw ota update broke root and recovery if ive read correctly. I don't have the s4 so if I'm wrong feel free to chime in and correct me.
Alright. So I just got a sgs4, coming from an s3. I have read reports that the bootloader was unlocked, but I can't find anything other than that initial posting about it. This phone is right from the store and has the i545vruamdk baseband and jdq39.i1545vruamdk build numbers.
Should I keep this firmware, or should I go for the ME7?
Soooo.... I followed all of these instructions and my phone has been rooted and working for months. However, I decided I wanted to try some new ROMS and cannot seem to flash any zip packages or ROMS? Any ideas? I can get to TWRP just fine and do backups. Any help would be great thanks. Also any ROM suggestions would be helpful as well.
Possibly an ignorant question:
After extracting ODIN on the PC, do I put it on the phone? Or hook the phone to the PC to boot into ODIN?
I rooted my last two phones with adb, not familiar with ODIN.
EDIT- After carefully rereading the "how to ODIN" linked in the OP, I think I'm ok. All those acronyms were foreign to me, but once I figured out what "PDA only" meant it became pretty straight forward.
GNex Toro
Just a heads up for anyone trying to root their phone and they've updated OTA to NC5.
The easiest method to do this now is via towelroot.
This might be old news but I didn't feel like scanning through all of these comments to see if anyone else suggested it.
Just head on over to towelroot.com, click the logo and download the apk. Open it on your phone, and click the button. Reset after it's finished, and then use the SuperSU to update the binary and boom... thats it.
im afraid ive borked my phone. screen doesnt light up when i start it up. blue light in the upper left corner stays on. says, in tiny letters, "kernel is not something enforcing" i followed instructions here to a "t". now what?? my phone is an sm-s975l
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