Galaxy S4 Active 4.4.2 Kitkat ROOT

[meraz9000]

Hello everyone. It's me again now this time I bring you root access to the new OTA KITKAT for our S4

Disclaimer : I'm not responsible if your phone suddenly dies, explodes or your cat catches fire. Be warned.

SOME PEOPLE REPORT MOBILE DATA NOT WORKING AFTER THIS PROCESS SO ALL YOU GOTTA DO IS GO INTO YOUR APN SETTINGS MENU AND DO RESET TO DEFAULT SETTINGS AND WRITE YOUR CARRIERS APN SETTINGS AND IT WILL WORK.

This process has a lot of steps but if you follow them correctly you will end up with stock rooted 4.4.2 kitkat with super user and safestrap

Requirements:

If you already took the update and your system version is 4.4.2 keep reading.

1. Patience
2. Pwned Kitkat OTA Update link
3. Pwnedkernel for 4.3 Download
4. System image from stock 4.3 Tar file Download
5. Safestrap for the Galaxy S4 Active Download
6. Stock 4.4 Kitkat Kernel Download
7. Chainfire's SuperSu.zip Download

First after you finish downloading the stock 4.3 image extract it somewhere you remember and you'll see the following files:
BL_I537UCUBML2_2244695_REV06_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar
AP_I537UCUBML2_2244695_REV06_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar
CSC_I537UCUBML2_2244695_REV06_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar
CP_I537UCUBML2_2244695_REV06_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar

Put your phone in download mode and fire up odin. Under PDA select and flash

AP_I537UCUBML2_2244695_REV06_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar

This will downgrade your system back to 4.3 because yes the new kitkat bootloader allows you to flash 4.3 signed firmware. Note: YOU CANNOT DOWNGRADE BOOTLOADER SO DONT ATTEMPT IT

Wait until odin finishes flashing the firmware and when the phone reboots itself put it again in download mode. Now you must flash pwnedkernel.tar.md5 selecting PDA again in ODIN and wait for phone to boot up. If your phone gets stuck in the ATT logo then perform a factory reset .

Once your phone boots up enable USB debugging mode and root it using saferoot or vroot. GOOGLE it and you'll find it...Then you must install safestrap.apk

adb install safestrapactive.apk

Now copy pwnedkitkat.zip and update-Supersu.zip to your SD Card and once that's finished open up safestrap in your device and tap install when that's done tap reboot to recovery.

Now you'll be at the safestrap recovery screen so go ahead and select install zip file.
IMPORTANT : DO NOT DELETE DATA/CACHE OR DO A FACTORY RESET BEFORE FLASHING THE KITKAT.ZIP OTHERWISE YOU'LL HAVE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN.

Install pwnedkitkat.zip and once it finishes go ahead and install update-supersu.zip to enable root access.

AND FINALLY VERY IMPORTANT YOU MUST FLASH THE 4.4.2 STOCK KERNEL IMAGE USING ODIN AND SELECTING PDA OTHERWISE YOUR PHONE WONT BOOT

Wait for your phone to reboot, open up superuser and disable knox security.

Enjoy your rooted 4.4.2 S4 Active.

Credits : hashcode for making safestrap possible and the other amazing developers at XDA that discovered these exploits in the past and special thanks to Samsung for "letting" open these loopholes

If you are in official 4.3 ML2 see my next post.

 

[AndroidState]

Hello everyone. It's me again now this time I bring you root access to the new OTA KITKAT for our S4

Uploading files at the moment....keep in mind that this is not a one click solution and we gonna have to exploit the loooholes courtesy of samsung to get this working..

For now some screenshots..

Thank you!
Can't wait. When is the ETA? estimate, 10 minutes?
I just can't wait transforming my S4 to S5!

Edit: 40 minutes passed
Now it is probably close to me. I can feel it!
THANK YOOOOOOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[meraz9000]

If you're currently running 4.3 ML2 official update and you want to upgrade to 4.4.2 but dont want to lose root then keep reading.

In the following steps I'm assuming that you're currently running stock 4.3 Rooted ...see my other guide...and that you didn't modify any system apps otherwise the update will fail and you'll have to restore using the Odin package for 4.3.

1. Download pwnedkitkat.zip from 1st post.
2. If you dont have safetrap installed then you must download it and install it.
3. Copy pwnedkitat.zip and update-superuser.zip to your sdcard
4. Restart your phone in safestrap recovery and install pwnedkitkat.zip and when it's done flashing install superuser.zip.
WARNING : DO NOT PERFORM A FACTORY RESET BEFORE FLASHING THE ZIP. THIS IS A MODIFIED OFFICIAL UPDATE SO ONLY SYSTEM FILES WILL BE UPDATED. YOUR DATA WILL BE UNTOUCHED.

5.Put your phone in download mode and flash the 4.4.2 stock boot.tar.md5 kernel and your phone will boot after a few minutes with root access enabled.

Enjoy.

 

[AndroidState]

Deleted. As I managed to do it.

 

[meraz9000]

Thank you!
Can't wait. When is the ETA? estimate, 10 minutes?
I just can't wait transforming my S4 to S5!

Edit: 40 minutes passed
Now it is probably close to me. I can feel it!
THANK YOOOOOOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Done writing a quick messy guide. If you have any questions let me know. Enjoy:laugh:

 

[sagi232123]

need to delete all again , But you save us again !
Thank you !!

 

[ki11bert]

I took the ATT 4.4 ota. Can I still perform this method? You discussed the 4.3 to 4.4 method but not from 4.4 to 4.4 rooted. Thank you!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk


EDIT: I reread your post and it looks like the instructions are assuming you took 4.4 already. Correct me if I'm wrong. Thank you.

 

[Xanthos58]

Followed procedure from root ML2, and now the screen is just at the boot animation with blue led for about 5 minutes now, i messed up, need the 4.4.2 odin files

 

[mtrezza18]

help

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hey I tried doing your root method after updating to 4.4.2 and after I flash the pwned file with odin everything goes fine but my usb debugging will not com up at all so I cant even root and im stuck with android version 4.3 but my baseband version is i537ucucn9 and that's 4.4.2 and nothing works no wifi no data no calls no nothing could you help or point me to anything cause I cant even use my phone. Thanks

 

[primeboss]

Followed procedure from root ML2, and now the screen is just at the boot animation with blue led for about 5 minutes now, i messed up, need the 4.4.2 odin files

Same, need 4.4.2 odin files

 

[Xanthos58]

Same, need 4.4.2 odin files

Ok i got out of this state, you need the ML2 cp and csc files and the original kernel for ML2 flash them and youll be good

 

[rdh28]

You guys should try flashing the 4.3 Odin package and starting from there. I know I have a lot of modified system apps, so I'm likely going to re flash 4.3 just to make sure I'm stock. Thanks again sunderwear!! Good luck rooting everyone. I'll post back with an update in a bit!!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

 

[sagi232123]

Followed procedure from root ML2, and now the screen is just at the boot animation with blue led for about 5 minutes now, i messed up, need the 4.4.2 odin files

Same, need 4.4.2 odin files

You guys dont need to , just go to recovery and Factory Rest thats all , its happens to me too

 

[akjimbo]

what about us 4.2.2 stock rooted users?

I'm sure most S4 Active owners are still on 4.2.2 rooted. What is the best procedure for us?

Should i unroot my phone via SuperSU then accept the stock 4.4.2 OTA update, then follow the method in the OP?
Or can i leave it rooted and flash stock 4.4.2 via Odin and then follow the OP?

 

[jkeuclid]

I'm sure most S4 Active owners are still on 4.2.2 rooted. What is the best procedure for us?

Should i unroot my phone via SuperSU then accept the stock 4.4.2 OTA update, then follow the method in the OP?
Or can i leave it rooted and flash stock 4.4.2 via Odin and then follow the OP?

I was in a similar position with being rooted on 4.3 ML2 (Sunderwear's method). I unrooted thru SuperSU, unfroze everything under TiBU, unchecked every module under xposed framework, reboot phone then proceeded to uninstall all my root apps. I then did a factory reset, then I flashed back to the stock 4.3 under ODIN and following that I took the 4.4.2 OTA successfully.

In the end it's up to you, but IMHO I consider it wise to begin anew with a fresh clean phone.

 

[meraz9000]

Yes if you get stuck after downgrading system you must do a factory reset otherwise you'll get stuck in the ATT LOGO.

 

[tet1]

sunderwear thank you I downloaded it kitkat zip file. I flashed it with safestrap and then I flashed suprSu then I reboot the phone won't boot ... I flushed with Odin the kernel 4.4.2 every things works greats

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using xda app-developers app

 

[meraz9000]

sunderwear thank you I downloaded it kikat zip file I flashed it with safestrap and the I flashed supruser I reboot my phone won't boot then I flushed with Odin the kernel 4.4.2 very things works greats

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using xda app-developers app

Glad to hear it worked for you. REMEMBER EVERYONE YOU MUST FLASH THE KITKAT KERNEL AFTER FLASHING the kitkat.zip update.

 

[tet1]

I was on ML2 with root .. and I did the stapes above

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using xda app-developers app

 

[Xanthos58]

So I can't lock the screen no matter what it is set to. Any way to fix?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app