Non-Flash rooting for ZE550KL - Zenfone 2 Laser Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Does anyone know if there is a way to root this phone without having to flash the rom? (Temporary or soft root)
I remember doing it on one of my older phones but all I can find for this is rooting by unlocking bootloader and flashing.
I would like to be able to retain my warranty if possible or at the least be able to unroot if I need to return this phone
Any help would be awesome!

Related

[Q] Questions about rooting and warranty

I just got a nexus 7 and am thinking about rooting it. I know that unlocking the bootloader voids the warranty. If you flash a stock image and relock the bootloader after rooting, is there any difference from how the tablet was before rooting? Could I then send it in for a replacement, if it was within the warranty period and it had developed a hardware problem (which wasn't related to rooting)?
Is there any known problem with the nexus that might develop which would prevent me from relocking the bootloader (e.g. problems with the USB port?)
Is there any way to relock the bootloader without a computer?
Thanks and sorry for the nooby questions
If you flash a stock ROM with stock recovery and re-lock the bootloader you should be fine. I've heard that as long as you don't mess with the internal hardware, you should be fine sending back as is, but don't take that as gold because it's just something I've heard.
Not sure on the known problems to be honest. You should be able to use a phone or another tablet to lock your bootloader as long as you can get fastboot installed on it.

[Q] [ROOT] Questions

I just had a quick questions about rooting.
I rooted my phone with motorchopper and things have been working great. Got rid of all the bloatware I didn't need as well as gave my device a quick clean. I've had little to no signs of lag(made in Korea). I'm new to the whole customization route. This is my first smartphone and I couldn't be happier with it
1. I rooted my phone successfully, however, I have heard somewhere else that the device needed to be bootloader unlocked before it is rooted. Now, motochopper, allowed it to find an exploit in the device. Is this, in any way, harmful for the phone if it finds an exploit? Most likely not, just curious. Dumb question
2. Does the device need to be bootloader unlocked before I am able to flash a custom recovery, ROM ect.? If the device turns out to be bootloader unlocked later on and released can I flash custom recoveries, make backups and use most tools successfully through ROM Manager? Or would it be best to do it through Odin and do things manually? Where would I be able to find essential files? Is odin specified for a specific device? Just curious
3.What ROM's would you recommend. Cynogenmod? I just want something that is lightweight, stable and functions well throughout the device. Where would be a good source to find good roms?
4. If the device is already rooted can I just start flashing custom recoveries, ROMs ect? Or would someone need to release an unlocked bootloader? How does unlocking the bootloader work? What are ways to do it? Flashing a file or doing something else. Idk..just curious I may be wrong.
I just want to know some good methods to make sure I don't brick this device. Of course backing up and recovering would do well. I've heard clockworkmod is one of the best custom recoveries you can use.
Thanks, in advance, for you help.

Un-rooting and Bootloader Question

My Galaxy S4 stopped working and I'm planning to send it back to get a replacement. However, I rooted my phone before this happened and I'm planning to un-root it before sending it back. I was planning on using the Triangle Away app as well to reset the flash counter but apparently I need to unlock the bootloader first. I read in this thread that you can flash a recovery and root the phone at the same time.
Would using that tool help me in unlocking the bootloader so that I can use the Triangle Away app to reset the counter and un-root my phone using Odin afterwards? The topic creator mentioned that TWRP will auto-lok anything you flash and works as a bootloader unlock but can anyone confirm this? I bricked my Galaxy S3 two weeks ago and don't want to face the same problems with this newly aquired Galaxy S4.
Is it worth it to go through all the trouble to just reset the flash counter or would un-rooting the phone be enough to send the phone back for a replacement?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=42320414&postcount=2
Thanks, that guide looks really helpful. I do have one question though, it seems the Triangle Away app needs the boot loader unlocked in order to run successfully on the AT&T Galaxy S4 so what would be a good and simple way to unlock the bootloader and is there a way to check whether or not mine is unlocked? Would running the CASUAL tool take care of this (even if my device is already rooted)?
What guide/method did you use to root? Did you not use the bootloader exploit at that time?
I used the Motochopper tool located on this thread. I hadn't researched enough to know about the CASUAL tool at the time
Un-Rooting
Zernell said:
I used the Motochopper tool located on this thread. I hadn't researched enough to know about the CASUAL tool at the time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go Here to unroot without flashing
http://androidtechy.com/index.php/2013-04-28-19-55-53/how-to-diy/48
pharrisworth said:
Go Here to unroot without flashing
http://androidtechy.com/index.php/2013-04-28-19-55-53/how-to-diy/48
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm...yeah I can see that method would probably work, but that wouldn't reset the flash counter to 0 would it? If the seller happens to notice that, then they won't send me a replacement and will probably tell me my warranty is void; hence why I'm trying to get the Triangle Away app to work but need the boot loader unlocked first in order to do that.
Un-Rooting
Zernell said:
Hmm...yeah I can see that method would probably work, but that wouldn't reset the flash counter to 0 would it? If the seller happens to notice that, then they won't send me a replacement and will probably tell me my warranty is void; hence why I'm trying to get the Triangle Away app to work but need the boot loader unlocked first in order to do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well if all you did was ROOT the flash counter shouldn't be affected. Iused the same tool. I took the additional step of replacing Superuser with SU user. to rid myself of the "custom" unlocked symbolon boot up. However, the phone was NEVER really unlocked.
Thanks for the replies! I managed to un-root the phone by just flashing the AT&T stock firmware using Odin. Hopefully the binary counter won't be an issue.

Root Help, I need some advanced thinkers.

For work I have to use mobileiron, which detects everything from root to the unlocked bootloader. I am not sure if it simply detects the unlocked bootloader or detects because of the warning that comes up, I would guess its the latter.
So not only can't I root, I can't unlock my bootloader in the current state. At the very least I would like to enable wifi tether, and I would do that through TWRP but then I can't unlock my bootloader. So way to relock without wiping.
So I guess the question is for people who don't know about MobileIron is will we be able to unlock the bootloader without setting off any other options? or is there way to at least edit build.prop without root or unlocked bootloader?
I guess ideally if I could root without unlocking the bootloader then unroot that would solve my problems. Thoughts anyone?
Here is a thought, although it might fail. You could unlock your bootloader, boot TWRP without flashing(fastboot boot twrp-rgvrg.img), make your changes, then boot back into the bootloader and relock it.
Still can't say for sure it would work and it will virtually guarantee your userdata be wiped.
Buy a second phone for work related purposes
I'd never spend so much on a phone just to let my company lock it down
You could always test out various configs and see what trips the software or not. You might be able to keep TWRP and root just turned off via supersu and everything work. Similar to android pay. You might not even be able to unlock the bootloader. Anything in between in possible.
Regardless it is pretty trivial to go back to stock and get everything locked back up again. So there is little risk in trying.
If it were me I'd try root and see if it worked. No? Ok, try to disable root with supersu. Will work or not. If not then make your host file edits for adaway and such and then completely remove root. See if that works.
You can also try to unlock the bootloader now as stock and see if it impacts the software. See exactly where it trips and prevents you from using it. Then work from there.
If nothing works, go back to 100% stock and lock the bootloader again. At least you gave it a go and had some fun for the evening. If I had to guess something in between will work and you can work around the limitations.

Why not have a new ROM...?

Why not a new rom for this model, I wonder if it is the root for doesn't show up.
It's impossible without an unlocked bootloader.
06ensar said:
Why not a new rom for this model, I wonder if it is the root for doesn't show up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We can't modify ANYTHING on the phone beyond stock.
We need an unlocked bootloader and possibly a custom kernel to make a custom rom.
Unlocked bootloader isn't going to happen unless an exploit can be discovered. Even though we might possibly have root, that doesn't mean that we can yet have a custom rom. After root is achieved (which is currently in progress) we still need to be able to flash a custom rom and kernel all without the dm-verity which is a security measure used to verify that no changes have been made. If any are detected then we get bootloops and/or knox is tripped which will mean no more Samsung Pay. We still have a very long way to go.

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