Step by step guide for lg v20 h918 unlocking, downgrading, rooting and twrp

[kish9046]

STEP BY STEP GUIDE FOR LG V20 H918 UNLOCKING BOOTLOADER, DOWNGRADING, ROOTING AND INSTALLING CUSTOM ROMS (NOOB FRIENDLY)

DISCLAIMER: I'M NOT THE DEVELOPER OF ANY OF THE BELOW SOFTWARE'S AND YOU PROCEED WITH YOUR OWN RISK AS THIS INVOLVES BRICKING OR DAMAGING YOUR MOBILE IF THE PROCEDURE IS NOT FOLLOWED CORRECTLY. I'M JUST SHARING THE WHOLE PROCESS WHICH I HAVE FOLLOWED TO ROOT AND INSTALL TWRP IN MY LGV20 H918 UNLOCKED T MOBILE.
AND I HAVE TESTED THIS IN MY OWN DEVICE AND WAS ABLE TO ROOT AND ACHIEVE TWRP.
THIS IS ONLY FOR LGV20 H918 VERSION

ENSURE INTERNET IS UP AND RUNNING IN YOUR PC

EDIT: THE WHOLE PROCESS HAS NOW BEEN AUTOMATED IN TWO SIMPLE STEPS TO PREVENT ANY POTENTIAL DAMAGE TO YOUR DEVICE. THANKS TO THE LAFSPLOIT CREATOR BRIAN @runningnak3d.

JUST FOLLOW THE PROCEDURE BELOW AND YOU SHOULD HAVE YOUR DEVICE ROOTED IN NO TIME

1. BACKUP ALL YOUR IMPORTANT DATA BEFORE PROCEEDING.

2.MAKE SURE YOU HAVE CHARGED YOUR PHONE TO AT LEAST 90 PERCENT

CHECK YOUR PHONE SOFTWARE VERSION IN SETTINGS---ABOUT PHONE----SOFTWARE INFO
IF IT IS ANYTHING BETWEEN H91810P TO H91810U MEANS IT IS ARB1 (ANTI ROLL BACK 1) AND YOU NEED TO USE LAFSPLOIT METHOD TO ROOT AND INSTALL TWRP,
IF YOUR VERSION IS H91810O OR BELOW (ARB0), YOU CAN EITHER USE DIRTYCOW OR LAFSPLOIT METHOD FOR THE SAME.
IF YOU ARE ON ARB1, PLEASE FOLLOW THE METHOD BELOW,

PART 1: DOWNGRADING

IF YOUR VERSION IS H91810 (Q, R, S, T, U) YOU NEED TO DOWNGRADE TO A LOWER VERSION ( H91810P) TO EXECUTE LAFSPLOIT.

IF YOU ARE ALREADY ON H91810P, YOU STILL NEED TO RE FLASH THE H91810P KDZ AGAIN FOR THE LAFSPLOIT SCRIPT TO WORK CORRECTLY.

DOWNLOAD H91810P KDZ FILE FROM BELOW
https://androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=282709

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL ALL THE FILES BELOW IN YOUR PC
UPPERCUT AND LGUP----
http://downloads.codefi.re/autoprime/LG/Flash_Tools/LGUP/
LG DRIVERS---
http://tool.cdn.gdms.lge.com/dn/downloader.dev?fileKey=UW00120120425

CONNECT YOUR MOBILE TO YOUR PC IN DOWNLOAD MODE (SWITCH OFF YOUR MOBILE AND CONNECT THE USB FROM PC WHILE HOLDING THE VOLUME UP BUTTON SIMULTANEOUSLY)

RUN UPPERCUT.EXE WHICH WOULD OPEN LG'S UPDATER TOOL AUTOMATICALLY.
INSIDE THE LG UPDATER TOOL, CLICK ON BIN AND SELECT THE H91810P KDZ FILE DOWNLOADED EARLIER.
NOW SELECT UPGRADE AND FLASH
ENSURE THE USB CABLE IS CONNECTED THROUGH THE FLASHING PROCESS AND WAIT FOR YOUR PHONE TO REBOOT AND THEN REMOVE THE USB CABLE.

CHECK THE SOFTWARE VERSION AND ENSURE IT IS H91810P

PART 2: UNLOCKING BOOTLOADER

HEAD TO SETTINGS---ABOUT PHONE----SOFTWARE INFO (ENSURE IT IS H91810P)
ENABLE DEVELOPER OPTION IN YOUR PHONE BY CLICKING ON THE BUILD NUMBER MULTIPLE TIMES
NOW HEAD TO SETTINGS---DEVELOPER OPTIONS
TURN ON OEM UNLOCKING, ENABLE USB DEBUGGING AND DISABLE 'VERIFY APPS OVER USB'
NOW CONNECT YOUR PHONE TO PC AND OPEN ADB COMMAND CENTER PROMPT IN YOUR PC

adb devices---->CHECK IF YOUR MOBILE IS CORRECTLY RECOGNIZED IN ADB
adb reboot bootloader--->THIS REBOOTS YOUR DEVICE IN FASTBOOT MODE
fastboot devices---->CHECK IF YOUR MOBILE IS CORRECTLY RECOGNIZED IN FASTBOOT
fastboot oem unlock---->THIS COMMAND WOULD UNLOCK YOUR BOOTLOADER AND RESET's YOUR DEVICE.
fastboot oem device-info OR fastboot getvar unlocked ----->THIS WOULD CONFIRM IF YOUR BOOTLOADER HAS BEEN UNLOCKED OR NOT.
fastboot reboot-----> THIS WOULD REBOOT YOUR DEVICE

IF THE BOOTLOADER HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY UNLOCKED, THE DEVICE WILL SHOW AN UNLOCKED BOOTLOADER WARNING MESSAGE WHILE BOOTING (THIS CAN BE IGNORED OF COURSE)

PART 3: CREATING A BOOTABLE LINUX USB USING FWUL

DOWNLOAD FWUL_v2.7_x86_64_15GB.zip FROM THE LINK BELOW AND EXTRACT THE IMAGE FILE SOMEWHERE IN YOUR PC.
https://androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=214529

DOWNLOAD RUFUS FROM BELOW AND INSTALL
https://rufus.akeo.ie/

INSERT A PEN DRIVE IN YOUR PC AND RUN RUFUS.

INSIDE RUFUS SELECT THE IMAGE FILE AND SELECT START (AFTER SELECTING START SELECT DD MODE IN THE DIALOGUE BOX) TO CREATE A BOOTABLE PEN DRIVE (WARNING: THIS WOULD FORMAT YOUR PEN DRIVE)

NOW YOU SHOULD BOOT YOUR PC FROM THE BOOTABLE USB STICK WHICH YOU HAVE JUST CREATED
THIS WOULD MAKE YOUR PC RUN LINUX OS
TYPE PASSWORD AS linux AND ENTER

PART 4: INSTALLING TWRP AND ROOTING USING LAFSPLOIT

BEFORE PROCEEDING ENSURE YOU BOOT YOUR PHONE AND DONE ALL THE BASIC SETTINGS

NOW HEAD TO THE DEVELOPER OPTIONS IN YOUR DEVICE AND ENSURE OEM UNLOCKING AND USB DEBUGGING ARE SWITCHED ON.

NOW CONNECT YOUR DEVICE TO THE PC (RUNNING LINUX OS FROM PENDRIVE) IN DOWNLOAD MODE (SWITCH OFF YOUR MOBILE AND CONNECT THE USB FROM PC WHILE HOLDING THE VOLUME UP BUTTON SIMULTANEOUSLY)

DOUBLE CLICK ON THE LG FOLDER INSIDE FWUL DESKTOP
INSIDE THAT, DOUBLE CLICK ON LGLAF(RUNNINGNAK3D) ICON WHICH WILL OPEN A TERMINAL
ENTER THE BELOW COMMANDS

git pull
git checkout h918-miscwrte
./step1.sh

THE ABOVE COMMAND FLASHES TWRP RECOVERY ONTO YOUR DEVICE.
WAIT AND PULL OUT YOUR DEVICE WHEN IT ASKS TO.

RECOMMENDED: NOW THAT TWRP HAS SUCCESSFULLY INSTALLED, YOU CAN MANUALLY FORMAT,FLASH LATEST TWRP RECOVERY AND USE ANY METHOD LIKE MAGISK OR SU FOR ROOTING.

INSIDE TWRP RECOVERY. FIRST FORMAT USING WIPE--ADVANCED FORMAT--TYPE yes AND FULL DO A FULL FORMAT, THEN FLASH MAGISK AND THE LATEST TWRP RECOVERY BELOW.

MAGISK ZIP DOWNLOAD:
https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/releases/download/v16.0/Magisk-v16.0.zip

LATEST TWRP BY PHOENIX(H918):
https://forum.xda-developers.com/v20/development/recovery-twrp-3-2-1-0-t3720239


OR
IF YOU ARE UNSURE ABOUT FORMATTING AND FLASHING, JUST USE THE BELOW COMMAND TO DO ALL THE WORK AUTOMATICALLY

CONNECT YOUR DEVICE AGAIN IN DOWNLOAD MODE AND ENTER THE FOLLOWING COMMAND

./step2.sh

THE ABOVE COMMAND FORMATS YOUR DEVICE AND FLASHES MAGISK TO ACQUIRE ROOT.

TIP : IF YOU FACE ANY ENCRYPTION ERROR AFTER USING STEP2. SH, DO A ADVANCED FORMAT WITHIN TWRP AND FLASH MAGISK AND LATEST TWRP BY PHOENIX MANUALLY.

YOU ARE NOW ROOTED WITH TWRP RECOVERY INSTALLED.

REMEMBER TO BACK UP THE CURRENT ROM BEFORE FLASHING ANYTHING..... DO CHECK POST #2 FOR OTHER TWEAKS

IF YOU WISH TO UPDATE TO LATEST STOCK (10U) AND KEEP ROOT AND TWRP, JUST FOLLOW THIS LINK AND DO REMEMBER TO ROOT USING MAGISK AFTER FLASHING THE ROM BEFORE YOU BOOT.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/v20/development/rom-h91810q-stock-rom-twrp-flashable-zip-t3681312


I WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL THE DEVOLEPERS WHO HAVE CREATED THE ABOVE SOFTWARES WITHOUT WHICH THIS ISNT POSSIBLE.

CREDITS:

@autoprime FOR HIS UPPERCUT TOOL
@steadfasterX FOR HIS FWUL TOOL
@Phoenix591 FOR HIS WORKS ON TWRP RECOVERY

AND FINALLY, @runningnak3d FOR HIS EXCELLENT WORK IN ROOTING OUR DEVICE :good:

 

[kish9046]

WHAT NEXT?
NOW THAT YOU HAVE ROOTED YOUR MOBILE, I WOULD RECOMMEND DOING THE BELOW TWEAKS FOR FURTHER ENHANCED EXPERIENCE....

1.THERMAL THROTTLING
IF YOUR ARE STILL ON A STOCK BASED ROM , I WOULD STRONGLY RECOMMEND TO RECONFIGURE YOUR THERMAL FILE TO PREVENT ANY POSSIBLE LAG WHEN USING EXTENSIVELY...

FIRST DOWNLOAD THE FILE BELOW:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0W3xXHgfOxvLUpKNWhrWDE0TDg/view


USE A ROOT EXPLORER (PREFERABLY ES EXPLORER) AND GO TO ROOT/SYSTEM/ETC.
YOU SHOULD HAVE A FILE NAMED thermal-engine-8996.conf
RENAME IT TO thermal-engine-8996.conf.bak (JUST FOR A BACKUP IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG)

ENSURE THE ABOVE DOWNLOADED FILE IS IN .conf FORMAT
IF IT ISN'T , RENAME TO thermal-engine-8996.conf
NOW SAVE THE FILE TO THE SAME DIRECTORY VIZ ROOT/SYSTEM/ETC
GIVE PERMISSION TO THIS FILE TO rw-r--r-- USING THE ROOT EXPLORER ( SELECT FILE--->PERMISSION--->READ WRITE, READ, READ)
FINALLY SAVE AND REBOOT.

THIS WOULD OVERWRITE THE THERMAL LINKED PERFORMANCE OF THE CPU TO AVOID ANY LAG WHEN USING EXTENSIVELY.

2. RCTD REMOVER

ALSO I WOULD STRONGLY RECOMMEND TO REMOVE THE LG'S RCTD CCMD AND TRITON MONITORS AS THESE WOULD RUN CONTINUOUSLY IN A ROOTED LG PHONE AND CONSUME LOT OF RESOURCES...
JUST INSTALL THE RCTD REMOVER APP FROM BELOW LINK:

https://labs.xda-developers.com/store/app/com.zacharee1.rctdremoverforlg

GRANT SU PERMISSION AND CHECK THE DESIRED FILES (I CHOSE ALL THREE FILES) AND CLICK ON PATCH, FLASH IMAGE AND REBOOT (THIS WOULD PATCH THE BOOT FILE, SO AGAIN IT IS ADVISABLE TO CREATE A BACKUP OF THE CURRENT BOOT IMAGE USING TWRP OR WITHIN THIS APP ITSELF)

3. SCREEN CALIBRATION:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.grarak.kerneladiutor

INSTALL KERNAL AUDITOR APP FROM PLAY STORE AND GRANT SU ACCESS
CHANGE THE BELOW VALUES WITHIN THIS APP (SCREEN SETTINGS)
Minimum RGB value = 35
Saturation Intensity = 27
Screen Hue = 1520
Screen Value = 112
Screen Contrast = 132

THIS WOULD SOMEWHAT REDUCE THE BLUE TINGE AND GHOST APPEARANCES OF THE SCREEN

CREDITS: @Holyman007 for his thermal tweak @Zacharee1 for his rctd remover app

 

[turdbait]

I was just about to create a post asking for a step by step for dummies so thank you very much for this! Going to do this sometime tomorrow or Tuesday and will update if I succeed or not. :good:

Got a question. Does this method stop the second screen from working?

 

[kish9046]

I was just about to create a post asking for a step by step for dummies so thank you very much for this! Going to do this sometime tomorrow or Tuesday and will update if I succeed or not. :good:

Got a question. Does this method stop the second screen from working?

this would end up with a stock rooted phone with twrp recovery if all the methods are correctly followed..
......final result would be.... you would end up with a rooted stock rom with a twrp recovery....

your second screen will work perfectly.....

please let me know if you need a different thread for installing custom rom, and to reduce the lag., install sound mod to get maximum sound output and customize second screen... i will create a noob friendly thread for these as well......

 

[kish9046]

Also check the original lafsploit thread @
https://forum.xda-developers.com/v20/how-to/root-lafsploit-h918-version-t3773443

 

[turdbait]

Also check the original lafsploit thread @
https://forum.xda-developers.com/v20/how-to/root-lafsploit-h918-version-t3773443

Thank you, I've been reading up on the main lafsploit thread for awhile but I was still not sure about the whole flashing KDZ file and stuff so when you posted this thread it was a motivator to try it out. Got a day off from work tomorrow so gonna try it then so I don't got to worry about the time.
I'm interested in the max sound output and second screen customization if you got the time and its not to much to ask. If you want to wait till either someone else comes along thats interested or till I root just so you don't waste your time I shall update hopefully sometime tomorrow. Thanks again.

 

[onlineaces]

sha256sum h918-twrp.img ----> THIS WOULD AGAIN THROW A HASH, CHECK IF BOTH THE HASHES ARE ABSOLUTELY SIMILAR

Excellent. Just a friendly suggestion, however. I would change the instruction above to use the word EXACT instead of SIMILAR, otherwise people may continue erroneously. The hash numbers must be exact.

 

[kish9046]

Excellent. Just a friendly suggestion, however. I would change the instruction above to use the word EXACT instead of SIMILAR, otherwise people may continue erroneously. The hash numbers must be exact.

Thanks for the heads up.... Changed to EXACT...

 

[turdbait]

I successfully have root now, thank you! If you're still interested in doing a guide on how to do the second screen customization I'd be grateful.

 

[kish9046]

I successfully have root now, thank you! If you're still interested in doing a guide on how to do the second screen customization I'd be grateful.

great to hear that u have root now.... will post soon on other mods including a step-by-step process on removing rct soon....

 

[cnjax]

All this stuff can be found already in the forums so you posting guides is redundant js

Sent from my LG-H910 using XDA Labs

 

[kish9046]

All this stuff can be found already in the forums so you posting guides is redundant js

Sent from my LG-H910 using XDA Labs

Thanks for the suggestion... but i thought this would help noobs like me to explore more about our device without doing any harm to it.....

 

[Phoenix591]

Glad someone actually laid it out step by step.

 

[BROKEN1981]

Thanks for the suggestion... but i thought this would help noobs like me to explore more about our device without doing any harm to it.....

so i just wanted to say thank for for the very noobie step by step guide. im soooo use to odion and adb flash commands.

just 1 thing i had trouble with was trying to push magisk and twrp over. I rooted by pushing magisk over with otg but no twrp on recovery. then i saw it said it was on download mode. from dl mode i just flashed twrp to recovery.

 

[kish9046]

so i just wanted to say thank for for the very noobie step by step guide. im soooo use to odion and adb flash commands.

just 1 thing i had trouble with was trying to push magisk and twrp over. I rooted by pushing magisk over with otg but no twrp on recovery. then i saw it said it was on download mode. from dl mode i just flashed twrp to recovery.

So i assume you have both TWRP and root now?..... And can i ask which version r u in now....ARB0 or 1

 

[BROKEN1981]

So i assume you have both TWRP and root now?..... And can i ask which version r u in now....ARB0 or 1

Abr1 yes I am rooted with twrp.

As I said, the commands to push magisk and twrp to sd did not work. I used usb otg in twrp to push magisk, but forgot to put twrp to flash as well.

I forgot that twrp had replaced download mode, so I was going a bit nuts trying to figure out how to get twrp to recovery. Lolol

Now I'm on latest update with rtcd removed thanks to the op who hosted it on xda as a flashable zip.

 

[tenkensword]

Hi guys, sadly I'm at the last step and got stuck.

I did everything, and managed to get to the part where you WIPE de data using TWRP, Mount, but when I go and type
adb push Magisk...
adb push h18...

I get an error saying that Cannot stat : No such file or directory

I'm unable to figure out what I'm doing wrong

Any idea?

 

[kish9046]

Hi guys, sadly I'm at the last step and got stuck.

I did everything, and managed to get to the part where you WIPE de data using TWRP, Mount, but when I go and type
adb push Magisk...
adb push h18...

I get an error saying that Cannot stat : No such file or directory

I'm unable to figure out what I'm doing wrong

Any idea?

As you are in twrp, you can manually flash magisk zip and twrp recovery.....

 

[BROKEN1981]

Hi guys, sadly I'm at the last step and got stuck.

I did everything, and managed to get to the part where you WIPE de data using TWRP, Mount, but when I go and type
adb push Magisk...
adb push h18...

I get an error saying that Cannot stat : No such file or directory

I'm unable to figure out what I'm doing wrong

Any idea?

Download magisk and twrp here https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=746010030569963731

While you are in the last step, in mount, select otg USB. You can push it to SD card and manual flash.

If you booted to system without magisk and flashing twrp, power off the phone, hold volume up, put in the USB, connect to PC. This will put you in twrp since download mode is replaced by twrp.

Now you can flash both files.

 

[BROKEN1981]

Hi guys, sadly I'm at the last step and got stuck.

I did everything, and managed to get to the part where you WIPE de data using TWRP, Mount, but when I go and type
adb push Magisk...
adb push h18...

I get an error saying that Cannot stat : No such file or directory

I'm unable to figure out what I'm doing wrong

Any idea?

Download magisk and twrp here https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=746010030569963731

While you are in the last step, in mount, select otg USB. You can push it to SD card and manual flash.

If you booted to system without magisk and flashing twrp, power off the phone, hold volume up, put in the USB, connect to PC. This will put you in twrp since download mode is replaced by twrp.

Now you can flash both files.