[ROOT]Samsung SM-J120A Galaxy Express 3 / Galaxy J1 2016

[ashyx]

Below you will find instructions how to root this device.

The following procedure has been tested up to firmware J120AUCU2APJ2

KNOX should remain 0x0
However you undertake this at your own risk.

Issues:
Wifi passwords not remembered (fix below)
Stock Flashlight app not working.
Model number may be missing from build.prop (fix below)


Instructions

1. Flash the eng boot image.
This is a special boot image normally used by engineers, it allows selinux to be booted in permissive mode with relaxed root restrictions.
Do not replace this image with the stock image after rooting your device or you will possibly soft brick your device.
(See below for how to recover)
ENG_BOOT_J120A_PG1

Download Odin v3.11.1
Reboot Phone in Download Mode (press and hold Home + Power + Volume Down buttons)
Connect phone and wait until you get a blue sign in Odin
Download the ENG_BOOT_J120A_PG1.tar to your PC and add it to AP / PDA in ODIN.
Make sure re-partition is NOT ticked
Click the start button, sit back and wait few minutes

2. Install and run Kingroot:
http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/kingro...-release/kingroot-5-0-5-android-apk-download/
You may need to run Kingroot several times to gain successful root.

3. Install and run SuperSU me to remove Kingroot and convert to SuperSU (not required) :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...ore&pcampaignid=APPU_1_uzPDVbGyFcGNyATHrqmoCA

Alternative (free) method to replace Kingroot:

Follow Steps 3 to 12.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...ide-how-to-root-tripping-knox-kitkat-t3129484

Don't flash the boot partition with Flashfire, uncheck.
You will also need to flash the system version of SuperSU not EverRoot.
When you get to step 12, don't flash the firmware. Disable EverRoot and just flash this:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/supersu/v2-64-2-66-supersu-mode-t3286120

4. Wifi fix:

modify the line below in /system/build.prop:

ro.securestorage.support=true to false

5. To fix “Unauthorized actions have been detected”
disable 'security log agent'

6. Model number missing fix:
http://www.techgainer.com/change-fake-android-device-model-number-and-brand-name/

Enjoy your rooted device

To recover from a soft brick flash the firmware below.
https://firmwarefile.com/samsung-sm-j120a

FEEDBACK IS APPRECIATED PLEASE.
THANKS.

DONATE ME HERE IF YOU WANT TO BUY ME A BEER OR HIT THE THANKS BUTTON IF I HELPED YOU

 

[fbueller]

Still no TWRP, though, right?

 

[ashyx]

Still no TWRP, though, right?

Not possible I'm afraid.

 

[shirleys143]

Not possible I'm afraid.

As ashyx mentioned in a previous post, Flashfire works. Loaded Xposed for Samsung via the Wa?? version.

spicybeansandricey, to clarify, Wanam is a modified version of Xposed for Samsung phones. Google is my friend, Google is your friend and Google is our friend. If you Googled it, you will find links to the same/similar packages linked by ashyx to get Xposed on Samsung phones. Since I was skimming the articles and successfully installed on a 4" screen, I wasn't sure about the name but only remembered the first 2 letters. In fact, the tutorial I followed was different from ashyx's post and gave no credit to XDA.

As an addendum, Flashfire works great and was able to back up EFS files. I just chose to backup EVERYTHING since I don't know what I will need later. My 128GB sd card cost more than the phone! LOL As for my vacation reading list and Google, I still have to read up on new superuser and root that can survive OTAs and root detection.

 

[ashyx]

Flashfire works. Loaded Xposed for Samsung via the Wa?? version.

Yeh flash fire is pretty much the next best thing to custom recovery with a few little tricks of its own.

 

[ViralThread]

Anyone have a list of garbage that can be safely removed? Even after stripping some of the obvious stuff there's over 4Gb of system stuff.

Can I remove the Samsung stuff like Galaxy Apps and such? I don't want to remove anything that will make it unstable so that I can still reset it back to fresh and begin over, but without the bloat ware of that makes sense?

 

[ashyx]

Anyone have a list of garbage that can be safely removed? Even after stripping some of the obvious stuff there's over 4Gb of system stuff.

Can I remove the Samsung stuff like Galaxy Apps and such? I don't want to remove anything that will make it unstable so that I can still reset it back to fresh and begin over, but without the bloat ware of that makes sense?

No matter how much you remove from system the size will never change, it's rather a pointless exercise. All you're doing is creating unused space.

 

[spicybeansandricey]

Yeh flash fire is pretty much the next best thing to custom recovery with a few little tricks of its own.

SO i tried to flash xposed via flashfire and got the old "system software not authorized by at&t has been found on your phone..." brick.

How to get xposed on there without bricking?

 

[ViralThread]

No matter how much you remove from system the size will never change, it's rather a pointless exercise. All you're doing is creating unused space.

So what's the point of rooting? The primary reason was to remove the bloat and recover some usable space on the device. Out of 8GB there's less than 3gb of usable storage on it rendering it mostly useless for anything but a media player or emulator box loading crap off the SDCard.

What a waste.

 

[ashyx]

So what's the point of rooting? The primary reason was to remove the bloat and recover some usable space on the device. Out of 8GB there's less than 3gb of usable storage on it rendering it mostly useless for anything but a media player or emulator box loading crap off the SDCard.

What a waste.

Rooting is about more than debloating. It's about having control over your device.
Why don't you use adoptable storage if you need more space?
You can always move user apps to system to take up the space you've created. There are plenty of apps that can do this such as system app remover. That way not only do you utilise that space but you also free up storage space.

 

[ashyx]

SO i tried to flash xposed via flashfire and got the old "system software not authorized by at&t has been found on your phone..." brick.

How to get xposed on there without bricking?

How do you class a message, which is easily removed, as a brick?

 

[ViralThread]

Rooting is about more than debloating. It's about having control over your device.
Why don't you use adoptable storage if you need more space?
You can always move user apps to system to take up the space you've created. There are plenty of apps that can do this such as system app remover. That way not only do you utilise that space but you also free up storage space.

Adoptable storage is useless. Most of the apps will not see it and refuse to install data there, making it impossible to install anything large on the device or more than a few small apps/games.

I hadn't considered moving installed apps to system space I will give system app removed a glance. Thx

 

[spicybeansandricey]

How do you class a message, which is easily removed, as a brick?

i just asked how to install xposed on there, who cares about what i feel is a brick or not. a brick, soft or hard is still a brick.

is there a way to get xposed on the j120a without custom recovery? i tried flashfire, maybe my setting were incorrect? do you have a method?

thanks in advance.

 

[ashyx]

i just asked how to install xposed on there, who cares about what i feel is a brick or not. a brick, soft or hard is still a brick.

is there a way to get xposed on the j120a without custom recovery? i tried flashfire, maybe my setting were incorrect? do you have a method?

thanks in advance.

Yes there is, but due to your attitude sort yourself out. I honestly don't know why I bother sometimes with this forum.

 

[spicybeansandricey]

Yes there is, but due to your attitude sort yourself out. I honestly don't know why I bother sometimes with this forum.

thats kind of harsh considering i just asked for instructions on how to get xposed on my phone. instead of helping you wanted to put me down for not using the word "brick" in a manner thats acceptable to you.

im sorry that we dont agree on semantics. i really have no "attitude" and how one can attribute an attitude to text on a website is debatable at best.

I have no ill-will, malice, or attitude, i had a general question that i was asking about and was looking to someone who looked like they had the answer for it. Normally, i "sort" these things out myself, but i went against my better judgement and asked here...(hence my 2 reply post history.)

if you can help me, i would gladly reward you for your time, via bitcoin, etc; I honestly have no issue other than i dont have the time to sit and look into this stuff like i use to 4-5 years ago. I promise you, i have no sort of attitude. this is just a forum FFS, and above all else, im not an 'ingrate.' i am always appreciative for any help that i receive.

If you could find the will to help me i would greatly appreciate it, otherwise lets not part ways with any ill-will, that's the last thing that i would ever want to happen.

thanks again for your time.

 

[ViralThread]

Ok so here's what my experience with system app remover was, and I hope I wasn't sounding rude or unappreciative, Immsimply trying to work towards a certain endpoint solution if possible.

System app remover did not permit me to relocate user apps into system space, in fact it won't let me move any apps as it claims "sdcard share the same disk with os", both in "move to phone" and in "move to sdcard" options.

Is there any reliable way to install apps directly to the external SDCard? Maybe install them to internal storage and then manually move them and symlink them? That wouldn't work for large apps but might allow installation of more smaller apps?

Essentially what you've stated means even the system is on its own "partition" right? So as I remove stuff that's stored in the /system folder, it's freeing space but not space my Android can access for the purpose of installation ?

Is that a proper summary of my situation?

Thanks in advance

 

[ashyx]

thats kind of harsh considering i just asked for instructions on how to get xposed on my phone. instead of helping you wanted to put me down for not using the word "brick" in a manner thats acceptable to you.

im sorry that we dont agree on semantics. i really have no "attitude" and how one can attribute an attitude to text on a website is debatable at best.

I have no ill-will, malice, or attitude, i had a general question that i was asking about and was looking to someone who looked like they had the answer for it. Normally, i "sort" these things out myself, but i went against my better judgement and asked here...(hence my 2 reply post history.)

if you can help me, i would gladly reward you for your time, via bitcoin, etc; I honestly have no issue other than i dont have the time to sit and look into this stuff like i use to 4-5 years ago. I promise you, i have no sort of attitude. this is just a forum FFS, and above all else, im not an 'ingrate.' i am always appreciative for any help that i receive.

If you could find the will to help me i would greatly appreciate it, otherwise lets not part ways with any ill-will, that's the last thing that i would ever want to happen.

thanks again for your time.

OK, let's start again. Maybe I mistook your response, it just seemed a little snipey. To get help in the right direction, proper details of what the actual issue is goes a long way to obtaining the solution. Stating a message caused a brick isn't anything I've ever come across before which is why I asked the question? However it seems further to that post you actually meant Xposed caused the brick after you saw that message and rebooted.

So going back to what I previously stated about correct details, here we are 3 unnecessary posts later.

Moving on...to install Xposed you need to ensure you use the wanam build of Xposed.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/unofficial-xposed-samsung-lollipop-t3180960

.

 

[spicybeansandricey]

OK, let's start again. Maybe I mistook your response, it just seemed a little snipey. To get help in the right direction, proper details of what the actual issue is goes a long way to obtaining the solution. Stating a message caused a brick isn't anything I've ever come across before which is why I asked the question? However it seems further to that post you actually meant Xposed caused the brick after you saw that message and rebooted.

So going back to what I previously stated about correct details, here we are 3 unnecessary posts later.

Moving on...to install Xposed you need to ensure you use the wanam build of Xposed.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/unofficial-xposed-samsung-lollipop-t3180960

.

thank you so much!! that was what the "wa???" was in the first few post of this thread that i didnt understand. i sincerely was not trying to come off as pompous, snipey etc; so thank you for helping me. I run a vbulletin forum myself so im no stranger to miscommunication.

I appreciate your help, honestly and sincerely. ill give this a try and be back, my sincerest thanks again.

 

[ashyx]

Ok so here's what my experience with system app remover was, and I hope I wasn't sounding rude or unappreciative, Immsimply trying to work towards a certain endpoint solution if possible.

System app remover did not permit me to relocate user apps into system space, in fact it won't let me move any apps as it claims "sdcard share the same disk with os", both in "move to phone" and in "move to sdcard" options.

Is there any reliable way to install apps directly to the external SDCard? Maybe install them to internal storage and then manually move them and symlink them? That wouldn't work for large apps but might allow installation of more smaller apps?

Essentially what you've stated means even the system is on its own "partition" right? So as I remove stuff that's stored in the /system folder, it's freeing space but not space my Android can access for the purpose of installation ?

Is that a proper summary of my situation?

Thanks in advance

Whoops, my bad. That's was the wrong app to suggest. I actually meant this one that DOES move user apps to system. You can see the mistake with the similar names!
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...CBowAA&usg=AFQjCNFe58rupOZgD6hS3UfXr-2rkHxsyQ[/url]

By the way I suggest this busybox:
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...CB8wAg&usg=AFQjCNGS1LQ2kB8PZ4Y--lzVTOG1SKQWvA

 

[ViralThread]

Whoops, my bad. That's was the wrong app to suggest. I actually meant this one that DOES move user apps to system. You can see the mistake with the similar names!
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...CBowAA&usg=AFQjCNFe58rupOZgD6hS3UfXr-2rkHxsyQ[/url]

By the way I suggest this busybox:
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...CB8wAg&usg=AFQjCNGS1LQ2kB8PZ4Y--lzVTOG1SKQWvA

Thanks for the quick response.

I installed /system/app/remover and it seemed to offer a solution. However upon moving few apps to system with the app, it's merely removing them. So more tweaking needed.

Will keep update on progress.

Thanks again

---------- Post added at 03:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:29 PM ----------

Is it safe to remove all of the Samsung stuff? Will that break the reset ability?