Database Users

restore to KNOX-disabled firmware

i have a galaxy s4 i9500 with android 4.2.2 and i read that if i update to 4.3 i will get a security feature called KNOX which tracks your custon kernel flashes and cannot be reset. and also you can't flash back to 4.2.2. is that true?
if it is so:
1.what will happen if you'll try to flash 4.2.2 with odin?
2.what other disadvantages KNOX have?
3.shoiuld i really care about KNOX if my phone's warranty is already void?
4.can KNOX harm my device by any way?
please answer the question by order!
i am thankful for any help i can get in this forum and appriciate everyone who answers my questions beacause i wanna know if i should update or not.
P.S.:if i have 4.2.2 can i install cyanogenmod 11 (unofficial) or i need to update to 4.3 to do that?

Knox doesn't track custom kernel flashes specifically, it detects if you flash anything non-samsung (whether it's cf-autoroot, custom recovery or whatnot). It just says knox 0x0 or 0x1, if it's 0x1 your warranty is void. There is another counter detecting number of flashes, but that can be reset with TriangleAway. Knox cannot be reset. EDiT: TriangleAway only works on i9505, sorry.
1. If you don't have a knox-enabled bootloader you can flash an older rom version. Boot into recovery mode, if you see a knox counter there you cannot flash older firmwares than the one you already have (on i9505 there was one knox-enabled fw before 4.3). If you don't see anything knox related you can flash what you want, but once you flash a knox enabled rom you cannot downgrade to older official samsung roms.
2. Besides not being able to reset the knox counter there isn't really anything special. Atleast none that I have noticed. SuperSU asks if you want do disable knox-features upon first run.
3. No, then it doesn't really matter. Unless you really want to flash an older firmware from samsung.
4. No, it's a samsung feature.
If I were you I'd flash official 4.3 builds anyway, as they're generally much faster and much more stable, atleast for me on i9505. And the improvements outweigh the downsides of knox. 4.3 feature list: http://www.sammobile.com/2013/10/18...al-android-4-3-update-for-galaxy-s4-gt-i9500/

[Q] Just bought my Note 3

1. I'm still on 4.3, My baseband is N900TUVUBM17, I would like to root WITHOUT tripping Knox.. Is this at all possible at this juncture? If so, what method should work? (I can follow directions, I just need confirmation)
2. I need 4.3 or 4.4 stock for when I eventually turn this phone back in for the JUMP program to get the Note 4, is there a link somewhere?
3. Are most ROMs for the Note 3, 4.3? And if there are 4.4 ROMs, can I flash those if I root my phone on 4.3? I'm interested in SlimKat mostly with Lean Kernel.
4. I heard that flashing a kernel or ROM will trip Knox, so how does one go about doing any of this without tripping it?
5. I thought t-mobile had a flash counter when you turn your phone in (different from Knox), is that true? And can it be reset? If so how?
I'm not new to rooting, and I have read these forms before making this topic. I just need mostly a confirmation on what has worked for people with the same baseband as me..
As always, thank you!!

t3tr1s_ said:
1. I'm still on 4.3, My baseband is N900TUVUBM17, I would like to root WITHOUT tripping Knox.. Is this at all possible at this juncture? If so, what method should work? (I can follow directions, I just need confirmation)
2. I need 4.3 or 4.4 stock for when I eventually turn this phone back in for the JUMP program to get the Note 4, is there a link somewhere?
3. Are most ROMs for the Note 3, 4.3? And if there are 4.4 ROMs, can I flash those if I root my phone on 4.3? I'm interested in SlimKat mostly with Lean Kernel.
4. I heard that flashing a kernel or ROM will trip Knox, so how does one go about doing any of this without tripping it?
5. I thought t-mobile had a flash counter when you turn your phone in (different from Knox), is that true? And can it be reset? If so how?
I'm not new to rooting, and I have read these forms before making this topic. I just need mostly a confirmation on what has worked for people with the same baseband as me..
As always, thank you!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check This thread to see if you can root without mesing with KNOX
It doesn't matter what Samsung software is on the device when you exchange via the JUMP programme from what I am aware, so long as it's original Samsung TouchWiz
There's loads of ROMS for 4.3 and 4.4 - however the 4.3 are not updated so much now if at all - AllianceROM currently still support 4.3 and is a very good ROM - There is plenty now for 4.4 - and I mean plenty, @civato does some great kernels also and his ROM FlexKat is pretty great. - XNOTE is another big ROM for 4.4 as is Omega and SweetROM all of which are just great. You have to try them to get a feel of which you prefer though
Kernel flashing/Custom recovery flashing will indeed trip your KNOX. There is(was?) a method in the General section about how to do it safely via Mobile Odin PRO. but you'd have to read up on that.
As for the T-Mo counter, I cannot comment on that as I do not have an N900T however you can look @ the T-Mo forum for more answers which is HERE

Root De Late Vega will allow you to root without tripping Knox, provided that you do not update the phone.
After rooting you can use mobile Odin to flash 4.3 version MJ7 but you cannot update to KitKatt if you wish to keep both root and Knox 0x0. KitKatt has a new bootloader which is patched against the Vega exploit.
Sammobile.com is the place to find sock firmware. To Vega it you'll need the stock BMI7 firmware for your device to begin.
You must not flash any custom recoveries or kernels if you wish to keep Knox intact either.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[Q] need help !!!

i new on android ... now i using galaxy note 2 ...
the problem phone is got super user ... what i know is my phone was root ...
can i unroot it ??? because i wanna upgrade it to kitkat if can ...
please someone help me ... new on android ...
which country firmware i need to download ???
will my phone brick if i download wrong firmware ???

If you want to unroot fully download triangle away to reset your counter and run it then uinstall superuser. That's pretty much it if you are on stock with stock recovery. If not you can flash stock through odin and it will be back to factory. There is a stock 4.4 prerooted 4.4.2 available which you could flash without needing to unroot
Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk

Fadil56 said:
i new on android ... now i using galaxy note 2 ...
the problem phone is got super user ... what i know is my phone was root ...
can i unroot it ??? because i wanna upgrade it to kitkat if can ...
please someone help me ... new on android ...
which country firmware i need to download ???
will my phone brick if i download wrong firmware ???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know it might all sound too overwhelming cause that's how i felt when i was in your situation but reading a lot of threads and gaining as much knowledge i somehow understood what i needed to proceed ahead and flash newer custom ROMS,since you are 4.1.2 and rooted in order to upgrade to 4.3 or 4.4.2 custom roms you don't need to unroot or use triangle away,all you need is custom recovery (philz touch 6.26.0 or twrp 2.7.0) ,you need mj5 bootloader(i'll explain about bootloader in detail below ) and last but not the least backup your current 4.1.2 stock rooted ROM as well as EFS partition.You can visit dr ketan's thread on how to back up your efs incase your imei goes corrupted chances are rare but it has happened with people so backing up EFS is must.Now after you have taken care of 4.1.2 ,you can proceed with flashing a custom ROM,since you want to flash 4.4.2 there are several deknoxed,dedoxed and pre rooted ROM's available by developers and they are just like stock samsung ROM.
Now comes the tricky part and it depends on an individual how he goes about bootloader part. Since you are on 4.1.2 stock rooted ROM your bootloader is outdated,there are few 4.3 Jellybean bootloaders but MJ5 bootloader is the BEST cause it's deknoxed ,meaning it won't void your warranty so even if you upgrade to 4.4.2 you can always go back to 4.1.2 stock ROM ,unroot your phone ,reset the flash counter via triangle away and then take it to service center.If you flash MK4/MJ9 bootloaders which is built in if you officially upgrade to 4.3 you'll be KNOX ,so when you root your phone knox will be triggered and warranty will be null,there's NO WAY currently to reset knox once its triggered. There are no benefits of knox but samsung has its own theory of implementing it for security purposes.Also one cannot downgrade back to 4.1.2 if they flash a knox bootloader you'll be stuck on 4.3 or 4.4 roms
So let's say you flash mj5 bootloader ,then flash the kitkat ROM from one of the links available on xda only draw back being on 4.3 jellybean bootloader (whether its mj5/mk4/mj9) you cannot charge your phone when turned off when on samsung touch wiz kitkat ROM.Kitkat bootloader is available but it's KNOXED which as stated earlier knoxed bootloader will void your warranty but you'd be able to charge your phone when turned off.
I know this is a lot of information at once for you to understand but main thing you should worry about is backing up EFS partition and which bootloader you choose, once you take care of those two things, ROM flashing is easy if you follow the correct steps on how to flash it (mainly making sure you clean your internal memory of phone clean).I am on mj5 bootloader and just this morning i flashed 4.4.2 ROM and everything is running smoothly,no fc no bootloop nothing.

[Q] Should I update from 4.3 JB to 4.4.2 KK ?

Hello
I recently got my S4 i9505. I'm planning to root it
I have Android version 4.3
I used to flash costum roms on my s2 but I'm not really planning to do much flashing on my S4. not soon anyway
So as I connected the phone to Kies to make sure the drivers were downloaded so I can proceed with rooting
Firmware update popped up
I'm not sure what the best option for me now.
Should I root now and then I'd be able to flash a costume KK rom? and are there any stable ones that are better than the stock?
Can I use kies to update my rooted phone?
Maybe I should stick with JB 4.3? Which one is better 4.3 or 4.4.2?
I remember facing some issues when I update my s2 back. So I searched for the KK Update for the s4 and some people weren't so happy with their KK update
I know that doesn't represent the majority but still it could happen to me
So I confused myself
What is your advice to me?
sorry for the long post
Also I have an extra question What is KNOX? and do I need it?

egy_b0y said:
Hello
I recently got my S4 i9505. I'm planning to root it
I have Android version 4.3
I used to flash costum roms on my s2 but I'm not really planning to do much flashing on my S4. not soon anyway
So as I connected the phone to Kies to make sure the drivers were downloaded so I can proceed with rooting
Firmware update popped up
I'm not sure what the best option for me now.
Should I root now and then I'd be able to flash a costume KK rom? and are there any stable ones that are better than the stock?
Can I use kies to update my rooted phone?
Maybe I should stick with JB 4.3? Which one is better 4.3 or 4.4.2?
I remember facing some issues when I update my s2 back. So I searched for the KK Update for the s4 and some people weren't so happy with their KK update
I know that doesn't represent the majority but still it could happen to me
So I confused myself
What is your advice to me?
sorry for the long post
Also I have an extra question What is KNOX? and do I need it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, the most problems in 4.4.2 are fixed, so if you flash the officical, latest firmware of your country you shouldn't have any problem.
An important thing: if you flash a custom rom, your warranty will be set 0x1, that means, you lost your garanty if you flash a custom rom, that's the so called KNOX. You can use knox like a second system on your phone, with all secure data in it, you can only access with a passwort and all datas are locked without this passwort.
Root your phone after the software update if you want to root it.

Tkkg1994 said:
First, the most problems in 4.4.2 are fixed, so if you flash the officical, latest firmware of your country you shouldn't have any problem.
An important thing: if you flash a custom rom, your warranty will be set 0x1, that means, you lost your garanty if you flash a custom rom, that's the so called KNOX. You can use knox like a second system on your phone, with all secure data in it, you can only access with a passwort and all datas are locked without this passwort.
Root your phone after the software update if you want to root it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the fact is that 4.4.2 GNG8 international version cannot be rooted....

christty31 said:
the fact is that 4.4.2 GNG8 international version cannot be rooted....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's wrong, just not with towelroot.

thank you for your input

Questions About The Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE SPH-L720T (Sprint version)

OK. I just bought this new thing and am looking for some feedback before I even think about installing custom recoveries, ROMs, APP's, etc.
On GSMArena.com my device is listed as the i9505. Everything matches up except the model version under "About device" where it states it as being the SPH-L720T (Baseband L720TVUJOH2).
Now what I want to know is, is that just carrier branding or is my phone indeed the i9505 and will all of the i9505 stuff work on it? It may seem like a silly question but I just paid $300 for this thing and the last thing I want to do is brick it.
The reason why I am asking all of this is because Samsung seem incapable of releasing a fully functioning or secure ROM (Stage-fright issues, widgets draw crashing on "Touchwiz" UI, etc). The current Android version I am running is "Lollipop" build 5.0.1 (official).
Which brings me to my next question: I noticed that my device has "KNOX" installed. Is there any way to install custom ROMs and/or recoveries without tripping it? I want to try to avoid voiding the warranty if possible.
Also this is an unlocked device so will flashing custom ROMs disable that?
Thanks.

I have an s4 with i9500 on it but i reality its an SPH-720T. You can know for sure in the bootloader
So far I had no problem installing i9505 ROMs like 'Super WizCyan, Albe95 S6, Imperium LL Rom' and i am corrently using Albe95 LolliROM 6.0 and it works fine :good: with the latest SPH-720T carnal (OH1) an the Imperium Karnal works too (v2.6)
It is rooted with CF-Auto-Root for SPH-720 and I have TWRP Recovery instaled

Grumpy Cat said:
OK. I just bought this new thing and am looking for some feedback before I even think about installing custom recoveries, ROMs, APP's, etc.
On GSMArena.com my device is listed as the i9505. Everything matches up except the model version under "About device" where it states it as being the SPH-L720T (Baseband L720TVUJOH2).
Now what I want to know is, is that just carrier branding or is my phone indeed the i9505 and will all of the i9505 stuff work on it? It may seem like a silly question but I just paid $300 for this thing and the last thing I want to do is brick it.
The reason why I am asking all of this is because Samsung seem incapable of releasing a fully functioning or secure ROM (Stage-fright issues, widgets draw crashing on "Touchwiz" UI, etc). The current Android version I am running is "Lollipop" build 5.0.1 (official).
Which brings me to my next question: I noticed that my device has "KNOX" installed. Is there any way to install custom ROMs and/or recoveries without tripping it? I want to try to avoid voiding the warranty if possible.
Also this is an unlocked device so will flashing custom ROMs disable that?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Boot into download mode. What does it say your model is in download mode?

The SPH-L720T is just carrier branding. It should be an I9505.
Installing a custom recovery will trip knox. You will have to stay stock if you don't want to trip knox. But beware, knox doesn't like root. Meaning that you will have random reboots if you root your phone and knox is installed.
I recommend reading your warranty document to see what kind of damages it covers. I read mine and it concluded that my warranty covers excrements. So I tripped knox after the first month.

Lennyz1988 said:
Boot into download mode. What does it say your model is in download mode?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It says SPH-L720T. But according to GDReaper (and the online specs) it is carrier branding.
GDReaper said:
The SPH-L720T is just carrier branding. It should be an I9505.
Installing a custom recovery will trip knox. You will have to stay stock if you don't want to trip knox. But beware, knox doesn't like root. Meaning that you will have random reboots if you root your phone and knox is installed.
I recommend reading your warranty document to see what kind of damages it covers. I read mine and it concluded that my warranty covers excrements. So I tripped knox after the first month.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Crap, I might have already tripped it installing SuperSU (through Play Store, and that's all it took to root it). Under download mode it says "Knox warranty void 0x1". Does that mean I tripped it?
That said, no random reboots the only issue I have is that I can't access the widgets app draw on Touchwiz UI without an FC (but I use a Nova Launcher anyway), and i9505 stuff should work with mine, right? I am thinking about installing EchoeROM, provided it doesn't have the problems the "official" one does.

Knox default status is 0x0
Any modifications done to the bootloader will make it 0x1 which means knox has been triggered.
Since it is already tripped, you might as well flash a custom recovery.
The SPH-L720T has the same specs as the normal GT-I9505 S4. You can compare them yourself.
It is just a rebranded I9505.

I get that it is just a rebranded version of the GT-i9505 but I had to make absolutely sure. In other threads some are saying they have issues. And since I have "screwed the pooch" and tripped KNOX (unless Chainfire's "Triangle Away" can reset the counter), I might as well start flashing then.
I was just reading over this article on how to deal with KNOX and it doesn't seem to cause any issues for me since I am already rooted via Super SU. Will I have to remove it anyway or can I just go ahead and flash TWRP via Odin (can you recommend any version?) without any issues? And is CF-Auto-Root really necessary? I have some experience with all of this from rooting and flashing my old S3 MINI, KNOX and CF-Auto-Root are the only two I'm not sure about.
Oddly enough, while it does say that KNOX (and KNOX II) is installed I can't find the shortcut as described in the article. This is a refurbished phone so god knows what has been done to it.
Thanks.

CF-Auto-Root is only needed for rooting. Since you are already rooted, you don't need it.
As far as I know, Knox status 0x1 is permanent. It can't be changed back to 0x0. The flash counter is a different thing. It shows how many times a firmware has been flashed on the device. I'm not sure if stock roms cout towards your flash counter.
If you have no issues with Knox and root then there is no reason to remove knox.
You can simply flash twrp from their site. The variant you're looking for is for the Qualcomm S4. I used Odin 1.85 and 3.09 with success in the past.