question about unlocking bootloader on d2vzw sch-i535

Hello XDA Developers,

Okay so here is my unusual situation...

I have two phones. I have one Verizon (d2vzw) SGS3 that I run CM 11 on with CWM Touch installed on that phone. On my second phone which is also a Verizon (d2vzw) SGS3 i was running stock 4.1.2 ROM which was rooted with CWM recovery manager. The stock SGS3 was the baseband version that supported multi windows.

Okay so today i decided to go ahead and check for an OTA update on my stock (rooted) SGS3. I knew there had been an update available for some time but I never decided to update my phone because i figured with it being rooted and with CWM recovery manager installed there was no way that the OTA update would work...

So like an idiot i went ahead and tried the update. I figured what is the worst that could happen? I figured that at the worst it was just going to tell me that the update failed and i would just be stuck with Android 4.1.2 which isn't the end of the world. I really like the multi windows setup. Moving on...i downloaded the update and I hit the install update button. My phone booted into recovery manager and it installed the update. When the phone rebooted I saw the message "Android is upgrading" and i thought whoa! no way!. After android finished upgrading which i believe was the dalvik rebuilding I saw a message in notifications saying "upgrade installation failed", however when i went into settings it now told me that i was running Android 4.3. So to me it looked like the upgrade took but I think the problem was that when it asked me to flash the stock recovery there was an option in CWM to say no and i choose that to keep CWM recovery manager instead of the stock recovery manager. Maybe i should have let the update install the stock recovery manager...

Now i knew ahead of time that if this update worked I was going to loose root but again I didn't think it was that big of a deal since I could just re-root my phone and I would be on a newer Android version. I looked around for the best rooting option and I wanted to use Chainfire's CF-AutoRoot exploit but I know that if you do not have the bootloader unlocked that there is a chance of bricking your phone. So after some research (which i should have done before i updated my phone!) i saw that there was an exploit out called "saferoot.zip" and that you could root your phone running a windows.bat file or a shell script if you are in Linux. Even though the program is for SGS4 many users on XDA with SGS3 phones reported success with "saferoot". So i tried saferoot 2 times with no luck. Finally on the third attempt (3rd times a charm!) i was able to root my phone and SuperSU was able to "disable KNOX".

So i now had my Verizon SGS3 updated from Android 4.1.2 to Android 4.3 and I had successfully re-rooted my phone. I was feeling good...

Until I wanted to make sure that CWM Recovery Manager was still on my phone. I opened up the app "quickboot" and choose to boot into Recovery Manager this is where the trouble began...

When my phone booted into recovery mode i saw a big Yellow Triangle. Under this very scary yellow triangle it said that "Verizon has detected unauthorized software on this phone. Please turn off the phone and take it into your nearest verizon store". Other something along those lines...

I thought I was in big trouble...

I could not get the phone out of recovery mode. I tried pulling the battery but every time my phone rebooted it just kept going back into recovery mode. The trick to get out recovery mode was to hold down Volume Down + Home for a few seconds then press the power button. This brought me to a new menu and i was able to hit "cancel" on installing a new OS and it rebooted my phone back to its normal state.

So finally here is my questions...

Question 1: I know i need to unlock my bootloader again. After you apply an OTA update it re-locks your bootloader right? Does anyone know of a method of unlocking the bootloader with the Verizon (d2vzw) SGS3 baseband version I535VRUCML1 running on Android 4.3?

Before when my phone was running 4.1.2 I unlocked the bootloader with Odin and the app EZ-UNLOCK but i don't think EZ-UNLOCK is going to work with Android 4.3


Question 2: Is there a way to get rid of that message about Verizon has detected unauthorized software on this phone? Now I know that ChainFire has a Yellow Triangle Away app on the Google Play store and I will happily buy it but I know that in order for it to work you first must have your bootloader unlocked right? If i try to use that app with my bootloader in a locked state i could brick my phone permanently right?


Is there possibly any file or exploit i can flash with either Odin or the app "Flashify" so that I can unlock my bootloader. Has anyone here tried unlocking their bootloader on their SGS3 running 4.3 with the app "EZ-UNLOCK" ?

I am very concerned about damaging my phone which is a company work phone so if i mess it up i will be in deep trouble...

Oh, one last question...

Question 3: Since i got that yellow triangle message about unauthorized software when i tried to boot into recovery mode could it have possible been because CWM recovery was somehow deleted with the OTA update? After i was able to get out of recovery mode I used the app "ROM Manager" to install CWM Recovery Again hoping that I might have a recovery manager... Now ROM Manager says that CWM Touch was installed successfully but I am not sure since I am kind of scared to boot into recovery mode again until I unlock this bootloader.


If my recovery manager is being blocked until I get my bootloader unlocked could i use the app "flashify" if i need to flash any files?


I know my situation might be a bit unusual but I am really going to need some help on this and someones expertise advice.

I hope to hear from someone soon...

XDA Members, have a great New Years and make 2014 count!


I thank you all for your time and assistance.

-droidshadow

well that stinks...

podspi said:

After accepting the 4.3 OTA, your bootloader is locked and there is no way to unlock it. My suggestion to you would be to grab the 4.3 ODIN file, reflash to 100% stock, root using saferoot, unbloat as wanted, and hope for the best.

Probably not what you wanted to hear, but there is no way to unlock the bootloader once taking the 4.3 OTA. Attempting to do so will brick the phone.

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Click to collapse

The only reason that I even attempted the upgrade is because next week I am going to purchasing the smart watch from the Samsung Galaxy Gear. For that watch (you can make calls from the watch) you need the upgrade to pair my SGS3 with my smartwatch when I get it next week.

Now this OTA update is quite new so that means that there still might be a chance to unlock the bootloader eventually when someone works it out right?

Big question:

Is it still possible to have CWM or TWRP with this 4.3 OTA update?

Thanks for the reply.

-droidshadow

so what entails for the future of samsung phones?

landshark68 said:

The S4 boot loader has been locked down with Knox longer than the S3 has, and no one has cracked it yet. I'd say the chances of this boot loader being cracked wide open are slim to none. If unlocking this boot loader were as simple as using EZ unlock 1.2, it would have been written about all over these and all forums.

Sent from the Shark Tank using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

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Click to collapse

So what is the going to happen to the future of Samsung Phones? Are we no longer going to be able to put custom ROM's and custom Recovery Managers on Samsung Phones?

Will KitKat + SELinux + Knox no longer allow us to enjoy the true beauty of Android? I think that is major BS.


So what are our options now? Are we going to simply have to choose different phones like future Google Nexus phones? I love Samsung phones and I love having the options of flashing custom roms or reverting back to stock and I really really love CWM recovery or TWRP recovery.

These phones are our property...

I understand that the software and the code is Samsung's or Verizon's yet we should be able to do what we want to our property. Could you imagine if Toyota or Chevy said that after you purchased one of their cars you could never paint it a different color or add custom rims + wheels! That would be ridiculous... It is the same concept here really.

It is really sad that Samsung and Mobile carriers such as Verizon have resorted to this...

-droidshadow

DigitalMD said:

Its really Verizon, They have had many Moto and HTC phones with locked bootloaders , unless Verizon unlocks it, it won't be cracked.

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I know but still i think it should be our choice! While there are millions of us out there that love to customize the software on our phone's by adding new recovery managers or custom rom's we are a small population to the rest of the stock phone using world...

Insurance companies make big bucks by all the people who never file a claim...but i won't get into that.

Many of you have made excellent points and i respect that. I especially liked the comparison of car rims to phone cases i thought that was great!

Hopefully someone will work it out soon or some how an unlocked bootloader will get leaked.

Come one Verizon developers! Leak it! We wont tell!

I was planning on getting the NOTE 3 but i doubt that phone comes with an unlocked bootloader so this d2vzw (sgs3) will most likely be my last samsung phone that I ever buy. I guess i will have to stick with the Nexus phones... I am going to miss micro sdcards!

-droidshadow