[Q] Questions about boot info and how to go from rooted 4.4.2 to Lollipop 5.0

[vbcomer]

Hi all.
First and foremost, I am sorry if these questions below have been asked and answered before. I am trying to update the SGN3 and stumbled on a few issues here.

1. Is there any official non-wipe Lollipop ROM for SGN3 yet?

2. I bought the phone from someone. I don't know what he did but the Odin screen (power + home + VL down) shows these lines:

PRODUCT NAME: SM-N900T
CURRENT BINARY: Custom
SYSTEM STATUS: Custom
KNOX KERNEL LOCK: 0x0
KNOX WARRANTY VOID: 0x1
QUALCOMM SECUREBOOT: ENABLE (CSB)
RP SWREV: S2, T2, R2, A3, P2
WRITE PROTECTION: Enable​

2.a. What can I do to make the binary and status go back to Samsung Official
2.b. Do I really have to worry about the "Knox warranty void" status?

3. The phone currently has Kitkat 4.4.2. I rooted it using Towelroot. Is there a way to do a non-wipe upgrade to stock 4.4.4 so that it would be ready for official Lollipop update (via Kies or OTA)?

4. Will the phone work if I flash it with a ROM from AT&T?

Thank you very much for any help or suggestion.

 

[najoor]

Hi all.
First and foremost, I am sorry if these questions below have been asked and answered before. I am trying to update the SGN3 and stumbled on a few issues here.

1. Is there any official non-wipe Lollipop ROM for SGN3 yet?

2. I bought the phone from someone. I don't know what he did but the Odin screen (power + home + VL down) shows these lines:

PRODUCT NAME: SM-N900T
CURRENT BINARY: Custom
SYSTEM STATUS: Custom
KNOX KERNEL LOCK: 0x0
KNOX WARRANTY VOID: 0x1
QUALCOMM SECUREBOOT: ENABLE (CSB)
RP SWREV: S2, T2, R2, A3, P2
WRITE PROTECTION: Enable​

2.a. What can I do to make the binary and status go back to Samsung Official
2.b. Do I really have to worry about the "Knox warranty void" status?

3. The phone currently has Kitkat 4.4.2. I rooted it using Towelroot. Is there a way to do a non-wipe upgrade to stock 4.4.4 so that it would be ready for official Lollipop update (via Kies or OTA)?

4. Will the phone work if I flash it with a ROM from AT&T?

Thank you very much for any help or suggestion.

1- Yes, the individual files are at http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-3-tmobile/general/5-0-n900tuvufob6-extracted-stock-t3047672 or at sammobile.com. The latter may erase your date. You will need PC odin to flash them on your phone. In any case backup your data before flashing. The wiping behavior is sometimes unpredictable.

2a- Flash an unrooted stock (official) firmware.

2b. A flagged knox is irreversible, so worrying is useless; there is nothing you can do about that. There are rumors that Samsung will not honor the warranty. But since you are not the original owner and you likely don't have the original purchase receipt Samsung will not honor your warranty period (if in fact any of it is still left) anyway. So relax and live with it.

3. If you only care about upgrading to lollipop, you can upgrade straight to that. No need for 4.4.4. Just use the files posted at the above mentioned link. If you want to keep root, follow the steps in http://forum.xda-developers.com/not...icial-lollipop-n900tuvufob5-t-mobile-t3046295

4. Most probably yes, but why? I can tell you that you are not going to gain anything by doing so and you lose some T mobile network features that do not exist in an ATT rom. T mobile roms are much better and more universal. Even if you want to use this T-mobile branded phone on ATT network it will still work with a T mobile rom.

 

[vbcomer]

Thanks for answering my questions thoroughly. I really appreciate your inputs here. I will do that once I have a chance.

Regarding Lollipop itself, I should be able to use ES File Manager to manage (read/write) Ext SD card and internal storage area including individual apps file folders (except system folders) right?

Thanks

 

[najoor]

Thanks for answering my questions thoroughly. I really appreciate your inputs here. I will do that once I have a chance.

Regarding Lollipop itself, I should be able to use ES File Manager to manage (read/write) Ext SD card and internal storage area including individual apps file folders (except system folders) right?

Thanks

If you have root privileges you can access everything with ES.

 

[vbcomer]

If you have root privileges you can access everything with ES.

What if I don't have root? Can I still use ES File Manager to manage (read/write) Ext SD card and internal storage areas including individual apps file folders (except system folders, of course)?

 

[najoor]

What if I don't have root? Can I still use ES File Manager to manage (read/write) Ext SD card and internal storage areas including individual apps file folders (except system folders, of course)?

In Kitkat there were limitations in writing to the external SD card and there was a root hack to fix it. I read that in lollipop there are facilities added to allow programs to freely write on the external SD card again but I have not tried it myself. If I go by this http://droider.eu/2015/02/08/how-to...es-file-explorer-on-htc-one-m8-with-lollipop/ I would say SD card write without root is possible again.

As far as the internal SDcard access is concerned you only have r/w access to the /sdcard area. Other areas like some parts of /system can be read, and some other parts like /data cannot be read without root. Your user-installed apps are in /data/app and their data is in /data/data, both of which will be invisible to you without root.