Some great news guys. On my third and fourth phones (not tries, PHONES), I finally found an incredibly easy approach to get the KDZ flash/upgrade working without having to downgrade or play around with download mode. Here are the steps I took , one by one. These steps have been confirmed on two phones: the first was the F350L running stock Kit Kat 4.4.2, and the second was an F350L running stock Lollipop (F350L20d, 5.0.1 Lollipop). The variations in both steps vary slightly depending on your OS, so pay attention please =3.
Requirements!!!
Onwards!
Some tips: If your phone isn't connecting to Play Store for whatever reasons, just download the needed APKs (Kernel Aduitor and whatnot) and copy/paste/install them directly on the phone. My sister's Lollipop phone wasn't playing nice, probably because it was outside South Korea. Also, when you need to do lots of typing, this program called Vysor makes life easy by allowing you to control your android device remotely via USB. Just need USB debugging enabled and the PC needs to be authorized. Vysor is a Google Chrome app, so get it from Chrome's market. It's totally free, and damn useful.
Additional Information:
Root Access:
Enabling LTE:
Custom Recovery:
Viper4Android:
A note on PhilZ Recovery: Any zips that I install give an annoying error about loki-fying. Ignore it, ultimately the zip that you wanted to install DID get installed. I've tested this with Xposed as well as V4A, and both cases I got an error on loki-fying. I tried turning it off in PhilZ but I have no clue what I was doing wrong, it wouldn't turn off, it still has an X in the Lokify option. Oh well, as long as it works.
Cheers!
Blitz9826
PS: Sorry if the details become too "thick." I personally hate having to read between lines wondering "WHAT DID YOU SEE AND WHAT DID YOU DO?!" I hope nobody reading this experiences such a feeling, thus the verbose details.
Requirements!!!
- Before continuing, please ensure you have the LG Drivers installed as well as LG Flash Tool 2014. Both can be found here.
- Additionally, you want to have the latest peachy clean KDZ already downloaded. I've used the D83820DTW, the very first one, very successfully all four times. Get the KDZ of your choice here.
Onwards!
Step 1:
Kit Kat Users: Root using Stump Root. After hitting Grind it'll ask to Brute Force. Do it, wait a while, and reboot (used latest APK at the time, v1.2.0; One Click Root and IORoot failed me).
Lollipop Users: Follow the instructions as written here. DO NOT SKIP STEPS! For rooting Lollipop you will have to use download mode, no other way around it sadly.
Step 2: Install SuperSU (if on Kit Kat, Lollipop gets it with root), Kernel Adiutor (or any build.prop editor), and Busybox (required for Kernel Adiutor, skip if not needed).
Step 3: Once required Apps are installed (and you've rebooted for necessary SU access), change the following build.prop configurations:
ro.product.model = LG-D838
ro.product.name = b1w_open_tw
ro.product.device = b1w
ro.build.target_operator = OPEN
ro.build.target_country = TW
(much thanks to @tjlabais for this valuable info)
If you installed Kernel Adiutor, launch it. BusyBox must have installed properly. On the left main menu is a build.prop editor, so tap that. Kernel Adiutor has a nice search function that lets you filter the build.prop variables, so search for "prod" and "get" for the first three and last two parameters respectively ("prod" without quotes will get you all settings that have prod in them; some scrolling required, but a lot less than without filtering; "get" yields only three or four results anyway).
Step 4: Reboot after editing build.prop and check after reboot if these variables have changed. The new values should be there now.
Step 5: Connect the USB cable and set the USB mode to MTP.
Step 6: Launch LG Flash Tool 2014 on your PC (run as admin to be safe; UAC turned off in Win8/8.1/10 never gives true admin access)
Step 7: Select Type as 3GQCT and PhoneMode as DIAG. Select the KDZ file. It'll look something like the attached file at the bottom of this post. Then click Normal Mode. In the new window, click Start. NOTE: This mode WILL wipe your data. I've done it four times now, it's legit, you WILL lose your data.
Step 8: A new window shows up. Country doesn't matter, but language in my experience does. Set it to English so that the output in the tool is all English, otherwise you'll get a bunch of question marks or Korean. Click OK.
Step 9: In the flash tool, the first process will complete after a minute, verifying Windows and whatnot. Then it'll give you an error saying that the connection the to server failed. OK that, and wait a few seconds. The button towards the bottom right will say exit at first, but then change to retry. Hit retry. If the software's frozen and not responsive, it doesn't matter, don't close it. If you're keeping an eye on your phone, you'll see that some magic's started.
Step 9.5: The phone will auto restart into download mode at the right COM port. No fiddling in Device Manager needed. The KDZ will upload automagically at this point.
Step 10: Watch the magic on your phone~
Step 10.5: At this point it's safe to leave the flash tool alone. Once your phone restarts into normal operation, your flash tool MIGHT crash. It does with me (Windows 10 Pro 64-bit). That's fine, cancel and close whatever was open. You're all set =3
Kit Kat Users: Root using Stump Root. After hitting Grind it'll ask to Brute Force. Do it, wait a while, and reboot (used latest APK at the time, v1.2.0; One Click Root and IORoot failed me).
Lollipop Users: Follow the instructions as written here. DO NOT SKIP STEPS! For rooting Lollipop you will have to use download mode, no other way around it sadly.
Step 2: Install SuperSU (if on Kit Kat, Lollipop gets it with root), Kernel Adiutor (or any build.prop editor), and Busybox (required for Kernel Adiutor, skip if not needed).
Step 3: Once required Apps are installed (and you've rebooted for necessary SU access), change the following build.prop configurations:
ro.product.model = LG-D838
ro.product.name = b1w_open_tw
ro.product.device = b1w
ro.build.target_operator = OPEN
ro.build.target_country = TW
(much thanks to @tjlabais for this valuable info)
If you installed Kernel Adiutor, launch it. BusyBox must have installed properly. On the left main menu is a build.prop editor, so tap that. Kernel Adiutor has a nice search function that lets you filter the build.prop variables, so search for "prod" and "get" for the first three and last two parameters respectively ("prod" without quotes will get you all settings that have prod in them; some scrolling required, but a lot less than without filtering; "get" yields only three or four results anyway).
Step 4: Reboot after editing build.prop and check after reboot if these variables have changed. The new values should be there now.
Step 5: Connect the USB cable and set the USB mode to MTP.
Step 6: Launch LG Flash Tool 2014 on your PC (run as admin to be safe; UAC turned off in Win8/8.1/10 never gives true admin access)
Step 7: Select Type as 3GQCT and PhoneMode as DIAG. Select the KDZ file. It'll look something like the attached file at the bottom of this post. Then click Normal Mode. In the new window, click Start. NOTE: This mode WILL wipe your data. I've done it four times now, it's legit, you WILL lose your data.
Step 8: A new window shows up. Country doesn't matter, but language in my experience does. Set it to English so that the output in the tool is all English, otherwise you'll get a bunch of question marks or Korean. Click OK.
Step 9: In the flash tool, the first process will complete after a minute, verifying Windows and whatnot. Then it'll give you an error saying that the connection the to server failed. OK that, and wait a few seconds. The button towards the bottom right will say exit at first, but then change to retry. Hit retry. If the software's frozen and not responsive, it doesn't matter, don't close it. If you're keeping an eye on your phone, you'll see that some magic's started.
Step 9.5: The phone will auto restart into download mode at the right COM port. No fiddling in Device Manager needed. The KDZ will upload automagically at this point.
Step 10: Watch the magic on your phone~
Step 10.5: At this point it's safe to leave the flash tool alone. Once your phone restarts into normal operation, your flash tool MIGHT crash. It does with me (Windows 10 Pro 64-bit). That's fine, cancel and close whatever was open. You're all set =3
Some tips: If your phone isn't connecting to Play Store for whatever reasons, just download the needed APKs (Kernel Aduitor and whatnot) and copy/paste/install them directly on the phone. My sister's Lollipop phone wasn't playing nice, probably because it was outside South Korea. Also, when you need to do lots of typing, this program called Vysor makes life easy by allowing you to control your android device remotely via USB. Just need USB debugging enabled and the PC needs to be authorized. Vysor is a Google Chrome app, so get it from Chrome's market. It's totally free, and damn useful.
Additional Information:
Root Access:
Pre-requisite: USB Debugging enabled and a USB data cable
As stated earlier, follow the instructions here completely to the letter, and you'll be a happy camper (mucho gracias to @Unjustified Dev).
NOTE: Make sure that when you run the Send_Command exe, it must be on the Com Port matching your DIAG mode.
As stated earlier, follow the instructions here completely to the letter, and you'll be a happy camper (mucho gracias to @Unjustified Dev).
NOTE: Make sure that when you run the Send_Command exe, it must be on the Com Port matching your DIAG mode.
Enabling LTE:
Pre-requisite: Root access with SuperSU and a build.prop editor (I prefer Kernel Adiutor, since I can use filter functions; requires installed and functional BusyBox install)
After upgrading to TW Lollipop, your phone is almost ready for LTE usage. However, the OS has the LTE option disabled. If you go into the hidden menu you'll see that the LTE options are still there though. Contrary to many online spec sheets that said that the F350L only supports three bands, I was able to get an unlisted band, Band 3 (1800 MHz), working fine. I managed to enable LTE by changing the following option in build.prop on Lollipop:
ro.telephony.default_network=12
Restarted and the Mobile Data / Mobile Networks / Network Mode option finally showed GSM/WCDMA/LTE Auto. Since then I've been enjoying LTE =).
PS: Don't forget to input your carrier's APN settings! Google is your friend, otherwise just call up your carrier's hotline and get the info.
After upgrading to TW Lollipop, your phone is almost ready for LTE usage. However, the OS has the LTE option disabled. If you go into the hidden menu you'll see that the LTE options are still there though. Contrary to many online spec sheets that said that the F350L only supports three bands, I was able to get an unlisted band, Band 3 (1800 MHz), working fine. I managed to enable LTE by changing the following option in build.prop on Lollipop:
ro.telephony.default_network=12
Restarted and the Mobile Data / Mobile Networks / Network Mode option finally showed GSM/WCDMA/LTE Auto. Since then I've been enjoying LTE =).
PS: Don't forget to input your carrier's APN settings! Google is your friend, otherwise just call up your carrier's hotline and get the info.
Custom Recovery:
Pre-requisite: USB Debugging enabled, a USB data cable, and root access with SuperSU
The upgrade process discussed here doesn't take place through a custom recovery, only KDZ. As a result, even if you have root, you won't be able to flash zips, make dumps, or clear your cache so much.
Follow the instructions in this post to install the Chinese CWM recovery. After that, download this apk and install it (credit goes to @Hattori Suzuki for this valuable info). After installing this APK, run it and grant it root access. Tap the Flash Recovery option and you'll now have PhilZ recovery in English (thanks goes to @pereradileepa for this valuable resource)
The upgrade process discussed here doesn't take place through a custom recovery, only KDZ. As a result, even if you have root, you won't be able to flash zips, make dumps, or clear your cache so much.
Follow the instructions in this post to install the Chinese CWM recovery. After that, download this apk and install it (credit goes to @Hattori Suzuki for this valuable info). After installing this APK, run it and grant it root access. Tap the Flash Recovery option and you'll now have PhilZ recovery in English (thanks goes to @pereradileepa for this valuable resource)
Viper4Android:
Pre-requisite: Custom recovery and root access
I'm personally a big consumer of music, and can't do without having some tunes on the go. I found the sound on the G Pro 2 to be a bit too lacking in bass (especially when compared to my Optimus G E970), so I gave this a whirl. What ultimately worked for me was this mod (thumbs up goes to @AndrasLOHF for a wonderful contribution). Download it, put it on your G Pro 2, flash it via custom recovery, and V4A is installed.
To check whether or not V4A is working, open Viper4AndroidFX from the app drawer, tap on the three dots in the upper right corner, and go to Driver Status. If it says NEON Enabled: Yes and Status: Normal, you're good to go.
IF NOT, YOU MUST SET SELINUX TO PERMISSIVE!
There's a great app that you can get here that'll do so automatically for you, so just install that, set the mode to permissive, reboot, and check the driver status again (applause to @MrBIMC for such a great app). You should be good to go. Note that V4A doesn't work on all apps, at least for me. Google Play Music and Orpheus are the only apps that get processed by V4A. Neutron, Winamp, Onkyo HF Player, and N7Player just didn't play nicely with V4A. Ah, I think the YouTube app also works with V4A, I did notice a difference.
Tip: I hate how Play Music doesn't have folder capabilities, so I used N7Player to put music into the que, save it as a playlist, then open it in Play Music. For some reason, upon restarting the phone the playlist would disappear, so I opened the playlist I made from N7Player in Play Music and added it to a new playlist in Google Play Music that actually persists. For example, I save a que in N7Player as a playlist called Temp. I then open Play Music and find the Temp playlist in My Library. I open the playlist, tap the three dots and add the playlist items to a new playlist in Play Music, for example Favorites. When my phone restarts, the Temp playlist disappears from Play Music (it's still there in N7Player) but my Favorites playlist sticks just fine. Voila~
Happy headbanging.
I'm personally a big consumer of music, and can't do without having some tunes on the go. I found the sound on the G Pro 2 to be a bit too lacking in bass (especially when compared to my Optimus G E970), so I gave this a whirl. What ultimately worked for me was this mod (thumbs up goes to @AndrasLOHF for a wonderful contribution). Download it, put it on your G Pro 2, flash it via custom recovery, and V4A is installed.
To check whether or not V4A is working, open Viper4AndroidFX from the app drawer, tap on the three dots in the upper right corner, and go to Driver Status. If it says NEON Enabled: Yes and Status: Normal, you're good to go.
IF NOT, YOU MUST SET SELINUX TO PERMISSIVE!
There's a great app that you can get here that'll do so automatically for you, so just install that, set the mode to permissive, reboot, and check the driver status again (applause to @MrBIMC for such a great app). You should be good to go. Note that V4A doesn't work on all apps, at least for me. Google Play Music and Orpheus are the only apps that get processed by V4A. Neutron, Winamp, Onkyo HF Player, and N7Player just didn't play nicely with V4A. Ah, I think the YouTube app also works with V4A, I did notice a difference.
Tip: I hate how Play Music doesn't have folder capabilities, so I used N7Player to put music into the que, save it as a playlist, then open it in Play Music. For some reason, upon restarting the phone the playlist would disappear, so I opened the playlist I made from N7Player in Play Music and added it to a new playlist in Google Play Music that actually persists. For example, I save a que in N7Player as a playlist called Temp. I then open Play Music and find the Temp playlist in My Library. I open the playlist, tap the three dots and add the playlist items to a new playlist in Play Music, for example Favorites. When my phone restarts, the Temp playlist disappears from Play Music (it's still there in N7Player) but my Favorites playlist sticks just fine. Voila~
Happy headbanging.
A note on PhilZ Recovery: Any zips that I install give an annoying error about loki-fying. Ignore it, ultimately the zip that you wanted to install DID get installed. I've tested this with Xposed as well as V4A, and both cases I got an error on loki-fying. I tried turning it off in PhilZ but I have no clue what I was doing wrong, it wouldn't turn off, it still has an X in the Lokify option. Oh well, as long as it works.
Cheers!
Blitz9826
PS: Sorry if the details become too "thick." I personally hate having to read between lines wondering "WHAT DID YOU SEE AND WHAT DID YOU DO?!" I hope nobody reading this experiences such a feeling, thus the verbose details.
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