Rooting the Captivate Glide (SGH-I927)

lambgx02 · Nov 27, 2011

Note - Sorry everyone; I've been so busy with work the past few days, and it doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon. I'll try to check in as much as possible.

This thread is mainly for rooting development / techniques and updates on the SGH-I927[R]; If you're looking for the latest (detailed) instructions, please see CarpeNoctem's guide here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1378082

If you want to participate in ongoing rooting/dev work, keep reading!

----

Success! The SGH-I927R was rooted on Dec 5, after a great team effort. We finally have the powerful device the Captivate Glide was meant to be! Special thanks to:

ardatdat, boog, CarpeNoctem, and everyone that helped keep this thread alive.

You've now got a couple options. If you don't mind the annoying little yellow triangle on boot-up (I think it looks kinda hackerish

), you can simply flash my insecure STOCK Rogers boot image (ro.secure = 0), attached to this message. I've never tested this against an AT&T ROM, so if you do, please report back how it goes!

Simply load this .tar up in the PDA section (same as procedure below), flash, and you should be able to adb in as root. Then, install your mode 6755 su binary into /system/xbin, and superuser.apk.

Note that you can always flash back to the stock kernel (also attached), when you're done rooting your device. This will restore the normal boot logo.

Alternatively, here are two pre-rooted ROMs:

Rogers Canada (SGH-I927R): https://rapidshare.com/files/1741701072/SGH-I927RUXKJ5_STOCK_ROOTED.tar.bz2
AT&T (SGH-I927): https://rapidshare.com/files/3058304268/I927UCKI3_STOCK_ROOTED.tar.bz2

1. Unpack the tarball, which will dump out a single tar file.
2. Put phone into download mode.
3. Launch ODIN, and select the file from the PDA flash option.
4. Don't touch anything else!
5. Flash the image.

Now, this goes without saying, but:

This is highly experimental! It could permanently brick your device! It worked for me, but I cannot accept any responsibility if something goes wrong!

At this point, it seems kernels and roms are interchangeable. I highly recommend the Rogers kernel, as it's not infected with CarrierIQ.

PS - Thank you Rogers, for doing the right thing!

boog · Nov 27, 2011

The CL652095 is part of their build number, and modules from a different build won't work if that 'version magic' doesn't match.

So, if you try to build a kernel from other source (and the initramfs from your kernel) you will need to

Code:

export LOCALVERSION="-I927RUXKJ5-CL652095"

that way it will load the prebuilt modules properly.

But, if you can pull the zimage from the phone, it might be easier to just unpack, add su (or cwm, then you could flash root from cwm) and repack.

lambgx02 · Nov 27, 2011

boog said:
The CL652095 is part of their build number, and modules from a different build won't work if that 'version magic' doesn't match.

So, if you try to build a kernel from other source (and the initramfs from your kernel) you will need to

Code:

export LOCALVERSION="-I927RUXKJ5-CL652095"

that way it will load the prebuilt modules properly.

But, if you can pull the zimage from the phone, it might be easier to just unpack, add su (or cwm, then you could flash root from cwm) and repack.

Yeah, assuming they're only using that to stamp the kernel and not to reflect their own (critical) patchset they've applied to the stock source.

I sent yet another request to Samsung support, and they're playing dumb. Their support guys claim to "not have the source" and be "not affiliated with the Samsung open source release center" (no joke).

I also filled out a request on their web form on the OSRC; I'll see what they say.

Honestly if there were a way to extract the kernel, we'd be golden. Unfortunately all mmcblk* devices are 007 masked or worse. Wonder if these devices have some undocumented "upload" mode.

Does anyone know if kies is able to force-recover a device with the emergency firmware recovery utility? Does the recovery mode use the main kernel that gets flashed by ODIN, or some separate kernel? ie. if I flash a bad kernel, is it lights out, or will recovery mode still work?

Smasher816 · Nov 27, 2011

I know adam has been able to use UART to root devices and pull software.
Im pretty sure you need some hardware. But if anyone can find a way its adam.

lambgx02 · Nov 29, 2011

Well, I'll be damned!

I made a request to the Samsung Open Source Release Center for the source, and they delivered!

I'm downloading right now and will report back shortly!

If anyone else is interested in checking it out, here's the link they gave me:

https://opensource.samsung.com/reception/receptionSub.do?method=downLoad&attach_id=1842

Go Samsung!

BigArea · Nov 29, 2011

I'm not trying to make too much of a tangent but with an upgrade due in a few months I've been considering this device. would you recommend it? If the hardware is worthy I will definitely root& rom and contribute to the community when I have the time.

How would you compare it to to original captivate?

lambgx02 · Nov 29, 2011

BigArea said:
I'm not trying to make too much of a tangent but with an upgrade due in a few months I've been considering this device. would you recommend it? If the hardware is worthy I will definitely root& rom and contribute to the community when I have the time.

How would you compare it to to original captivate?

Honestly, my only issue is the lack of rootability (which hopefully will be solved soon).

Now, I'm coming from a 2+ year old n900, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I have to say that the phone itself is spectacular. If it wasn't, I'd have returned it the day I realized it couldn't be easily rooted. It was good enough to make me hold out.

The display is gorgeous, form factor perfect, keyboard is decent enough (not as good as the n900's, but it was way above average), and the performance is, for me, mind blowing.

nimper · Nov 29, 2011

BigArea said:
I'm not trying to make too much of a tangent but with an upgrade due in a few months I've been considering this device. would you recommend it? If the hardware is worthy I will definitely root& rom and contribute to the community when I have the time.

How would you compare it to to original captivate?

slide-out keyboard, stock gingerbread, front-facing camera... in line for an official ICS upgrade (maybe????)... dual core CPU... faster HSPA+ downloads...

lambgx02 · Nov 29, 2011

Ok, I successfully built a kernel for our device! Time to roll the dice.

...fires up ODIN...

Wish me luck!

Does anyone know offhand how to make a kernel insecure?

jmtheiss · Nov 29, 2011

Try telling it that it needs to lose some weight. That should make it really insecure.

TRusselo · Nov 29, 2011

lol rof ! +10

I am going to request from the moderator to create a captivate glide dev subforum and Q&A.

lambgx02 · Nov 29, 2011

Well, that got ugly.

ODIN failed to flash the new kernel, giving this error:

Code:

...
<ID:0/006> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/006> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/006> zImage
<ID:0/006> NAND Write Start!! 
<ID:0/006> 
<ID:0/006> Complete(Write) operation failed.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

Now it's complaining I need to do a firmware recovery. Ugh.

I hope this is reversible.

Any ODIN experts monitoring this thread?

Also, does anyone know how to use KIES to perform an emergency recovery? The device isn't showing up in the list.

EDIT

Ok, this is bizarre. Out of desperation, I booted into 3e recovery mode, rebooted, and suddenly my device came back to life. Running fine. As if nothing happened. I checked the kernel timestamp (from /proc/version) and it's still the stock kernel, so the NAND update failed. I guess it must have flagged a failure, and that flag was reset by recovery mode!

CarpeNoctem · Nov 29, 2011

lambgx02 said:
Ok, I successfully built a kernel for our device! Time to roll the dice.

...fires up ODIN...

Wish me luck!

Does anyone know offhand how to make a kernel insecure?

How did you build a kernel without the source being released??

viny2cool · Nov 29, 2011

jmtheiss said:
Try telling it that it needs to lose some weight. That should make it really insecure.

LMAO....+1

rflnc1 · Nov 29, 2011

CarpeNoctem said:
How did you build a kernel without the source being released??

see post #5

boog · Nov 29, 2011

lambgx02 said:
Well, that got ugly.

ODIN failed to flash the new kernel, giving this error:

Code:

... <ID:0/006> Get PIT for mapping.. <ID:0/006> Firmware update start.. <ID:0/006> zImage <ID:0/006> NAND Write Start!! <ID:0/006> <ID:0/006> Complete(Write) operation failed. <OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

Now it's complaining I need to do a firmware recovery. Ugh.

I hope this is reversible.

Any ODIN experts monitoring this thread?

Also, does anyone know how to use KIES to perform an emergency recovery? The device isn't showing up in the list.

EDIT

Ok, this is bizarre. Out of desperation, I booted into 3e recovery mode, rebooted, and suddenly my device came back to life. Running fine. As if nothing happened. I checked the kernel timestamp (from /proc/version) and it's still the stock kernel, so the NAND update failed. I guess it must have flagged a failure, and that flag was reset by recovery mode!

I have had issues with samsung's source. We have been playing with their kh2 source, and I get builds that seem to build successfully, but never boot. Had a few that wouldn't flash (using heimdall), for some mysterious reason that seem similar to what you got.

I would say you still need a backup zimage before trying to flash an unknown kernel. You could be stuck with a non booting phone without it.

CarpeNoctem · Nov 30, 2011

Did anybody tried this kernel, same tegra2 same os and version: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1348857
when I compare the source from samsung there are some difference (ATT reference in the i927 one) but they are 99.99% similar

ardatdat · Nov 30, 2011

hi .. everyone here. I am the kernel developer for i9103.

Firstly, I do not get the Captivate Glide. But, could I do anything for the GLIDE? If I try to compile a kernel, I could not test in using my machine.

And I think you all know how to use Odin3 thru PDA to flash ROM & kernels?

CarpeNoctem · Nov 30, 2011

ardatdat said:
hi .. everyone here. I am the kernel developer for i9103.

Firstly, I do not get the Captivate Glide. But, could I do anything for the GLIDE? If I try to compile a kernel, I could not test in using my machine.

And I think you all know how to use Odin3 thru PDA to flash ROM & kernels?

Honestly if you can compile the kernel with root and CWM that would be HEAVEN!!
I install your other kernel (curiosity I had to try) and bricked my phone

ardatdat · Nov 30, 2011

Also, do anyone get the original kernel (boot.img) for that phone? It will help me and be the most important part to have the compiled kernel working on the phone.

So, please, if anyone get the boot.img, please keep it, upload it and tell me. Thanks.

Rooting the Captivate Glide (SGH-I927)

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