yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] nicholi2789:
As long as your sure you successfully followed the guide and are rooted and unlocked the bootloader it won't give you a problem. If you installed the supersu_bootloader_fixed file from recovery and it successfully installed then you are unlocked. I've used rom manager to update recovery successfully with no problem in the past. It's always worked for me.

You should be fine as long as the bootloader is unlocked.

I wouldn't advise using rom manager for anything else like flashing roms though.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] seang:
I have. camera is dead.

---------- Post added at 08:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:10 AM ----------

so, if im running any rooted ROM, i.e. Synergy, i flash this and it should fix the camera issue?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] speedingcheetah:
if previously flashed md3 firmware...then ..yes....flashing this .zip fixes the camera....but md3 modem is junk..dont use it...just flash the full mb1

http://d-h.st/gLJ
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] seang:
heck yes! super simple fix!

thanks a ton!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] airmaxx23:
When I flash this SBL1 is successful but I'm getting "SHA1 SUM FAILURE! SKIPPING!" on SBL2 and SBL3.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] speedingcheetah:
i noticed that 2...but still worked fine
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] phoenixus:
I see that the CWM recovery in the OP is version 6.0.2.3, but on the CWM site, it shows 6.0.3.1 is available (http://www.clockworkmod.com/rommanager).

Do we need to use the version in the OP for any reason or can we download the recovery from the CWM site and flash that with the same steps?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] wrigbone:
Hey folks, I usually don't accept these updates right away because of things like this latest monster, but this time I did thinking it was just a "features" update and not a full version upgrade and of course I'm having the issues. Not as bad as some have reported but 4g is inconsistent and battery drain is bad. So I figured now would be a good time to achieve root :victory:

Not so fast...this thread is scaring the crap out of me. Before this phone I had an HTC Incredible rooted and flashed quite a bit of things. Familiar with CWMR and wiping 3x everything but the S3 is a whole different ball game. Joined XDA had some fun with it and I was told by some devs at that time that flashing a radio and a kernel at the same time was really the only way to "hard brick" the device so that's why they always did them separately. Now I come in here and it's an all in one deal with no wiping. Everything seems different...I'm not even exactly sure what a bootchain is? Yep another newb but I can follow directions so I was really ready to do this today after researching yesterday. I have all the files downloaded, hash checked, and in place. I just can't seem to get the courage up to get started. Not long ago in this thread a senior member hard bricked his device following the instructions perfectly (he says) and it seems like many are getting "unauthorized software" as well as other random errors. I wish there were more "hey this worked perfectly" posts up here but I guess the ones with issues are usually the ones who post.

I'm really on the fence right now. I cant afford to brick my phone but I don't want to live with this for three months until Verizon rolls out a fix. So I guess I'm looking for some re-assurance that this is a good rooting method. Have any of you done this successfully with a phone that was totally stock up to VRBMD3 (you rooted in the last week after taking the OTA). I know nothing is foolproof when it comes to rooting but I want to make sure the odds are good and that most people with issues are not following directions well.

Thanks
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] joshua5683:
I don't know how anyone could brick if they follow the instructions unless there's some slim chance of it happening. I've went to the stock image and re-rooted and re-unlocked the boot loader like 10 times using this guide and have never hard bricked. There are a lot of "this worked perfectly" people they just are busy flashing roms and stuff instead of posting their success. A lot probably just Google for a guide, find this, do it and move on without having an account. And yes I have done the root process on VRBMD3. It was fine but the MD3 boot chain would break my camera, fixed by flashing MB1 boot chain. I don't think you have much to worry about but it's up to you

Sent from my SCH-I535
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] wrigbone:
This is what I was referring to and I have found other threads on XDA with the exact same issue. People claiming they followed the instructions to the T and this happened and then someone replying saying the exact same thing happened to them. I'm thinking this is a roll of the the dice and some (usually me) will get PermaBricked :crying:
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] joshua5683:
Oh yeah I've seen someone get bricked on vralec too. No idea why that has happened to people but I have flashed it many times. Maybe someone here has info on that boot chain and why it bricks some people's phone

Sent from my SCH-I535
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SlimSnoopOS:
Idk why but I noticed there have been a few cases in this thread where someone was following step by step and oddly enough the step with the VRALEC bootchain hard bricked their device. Then the next few posts would be "Success" or "this worked for me just now" and there's not much we as a community can do. The steps have not changed in months. It's difficult to troubleshoot when you can't physically watch how it bricked it.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] open1your1eyes0:
There are a number of ways you can brick when flashing a bootchain (all of which are not the fault of the bootchain itself)

You have a faulty USB cable

You have a faulty USB port

Your computer is unstable

Your device has a hardware fault or is unstable

You are using ODIN when not in ODIN/Download mode on the device

You got a corrupt bootchain download then renamed .tar.md5 to just .tar to force flash it

Most common issue is a corrupt download or faulty USB cable. This is why it's very important to check the MD5 of the file before flashing.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] joshua5683:
Good to know thanks

Sent from my SCH-I535
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] phoenixus:
Well, I was all set to do this tonight but the last few posts have scared me lol. My GS3 is only two weeks old, I would die inside if it hard bricked.

Which I assume, there is no way to return from a hard brick?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] open1your1eyes0:
No need to be scared. As long as you have a stable computer, good USB cable, and check the MD5 of the bootchain you should be all set. :good:
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] hallstevenson:
I've had HTC phones for 4 years and rooted, of course. Before I went to bed on the day I hot this GS3, I had rooted it and unlocked the bootloader. Quit worrying!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] phoenixus:
I guess I'll try it then. I'll be using the stock USB cable that came with the charger, so that better not be bad lol.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] wrigbone:
I did read that a bad USB cable could be the culprit or another possibility is Kies or PDAnet or some other software running that communicates with the device from a PC.

I'm starting to think about giving it a shot again. This has me confused though "You got a corrupt bootchain download then renamed .tar.md5 to just .tar to force flash it:" .md5 does not make sense to me but all the downloads I am getting from here have that extension after the .tar???
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] techspecs:
The file has a built in fail safe of having an md5 embedded into it. By removing the md5 part from the name, it will bypass the check and therefore "work" except it will just hard brick your phone instead of failing the pre software check. In other words, don't do it.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stolly08:
Ok having a bit of an issue.... Got thru it all good upto Step 3 when I go to find the pda of twrp its not showing up but its in my downloads folder when I go in thru my computer.... is there something to do first there?

S3 is so much harder now to root than it was back when it came out lol
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] techspecs:
The recovery file should be on your computer not phone since you flash in Odin.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stolly08:
I have it downloaded to the computer...

Its in my DL folder

But this is all I have when I open up PDA under Odin.

---------- Post added at 08:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:43 PM ----------

Switch the pics around to correspond with the words...
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] techspecs:
It looks like maybe there is an issue with the extension. I don't see it in the downloads view and Odin will only show .tar or .tar.md5 files
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stolly08:
So what redownload the file?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] techspecs:
Either that or right click it and verify the extension in properties. If it matches (.tar.md5), maybe move it to the desktop or somewhere else easier to find.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stolly08:
Step 3 - 3rd bullet is what I'm trying to do... So I open Odin again hit pda and find what tar file?

Thanks for helping btw!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] techspecs:
It would be either twrp or cwm, whichever you chose. Here's mine for reference.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] phoenixus:
The bootchain files go in the pda slots right? The video has so much brightness you can't see the screen and I want to be sure I'm hearing the guy correctly lol
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] techspecs:
Yes, everything in the pda slot for this process.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stolly08:
Always use twrp... I have the dl on my desktop but it won't find it! It wants to like burn the link this is what the properties of the file is I can make it either this want to be burnt image or the WinRarr state but when I open up the winrarr it links to a couple things but won't do anything... and odin can't see either of these files...

---------- Post added at 09:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:24 PM ----------

What video are you watching?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] techspecs:
Something is changing the file extension. It should be .tar.md5 but it's reading as .img and .rar (you must have downloaded two copies?) Video is linked in the OP.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] zachf714:
I think he is watching shanes vid
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] phoenixus:
What about battery life...does that matter when flashing?

Right now I'm around 45%, should I wait until I'm fully charged?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stolly08:
Should be enough but I wouldn't start any lower than that... Did you get the dl file as a tar for twrp?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] phoenixus:
I'm going to use clockwork mod
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stolly08:
Well is you cwmr a tar when you DL it on the computer
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] no cigar:
Hey guys just curious, I ODIN'd back to 4.1.1 BLK3 and now have tried to flash the VRALEC bootchain twice via odin and when i go to status the bootchain is still BLK3. Any ideas why this isn't updating?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] wrigbone:
So it was techspecs who I originally quoted here as having bricked with this process and now he is offering up advice. What happened man? Did you ever figure out what went wrong? Obviously you didn't shy away from trying it again. What advice can you offer?

Also - I would not rename and try to force anything during this. That's what I asked about the .md5 extension. It sounded as if open1your1eyes0 was saying if I had anything other than a .tar extension I got a bad DL.

One last question for the panel...If the latest OTA is my problem I don't want to restore the VRBMD3 bootchain correct??? I would want to go through the steps and either restore the VRBMB1 bootchain and stop there for now OR flash a custom ROM (OR is it restore to VRBMB1 AND then flash a custom ROM)?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SlimSnoopOS:
Simple. The bootchain is not the same as the baseband. The baseband is the radio (aka modem). Go to Invisiblek's thread if you want to change modems.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stolly08:
Gotit!!! Don't open files with winrar! Save them then put them into Odin etc...... DUH!!! Wish someone woula thought of that and told me before the 5hr dilema! Good process tho if I would've done that correctly coulda had her rooted and read in 20min easy!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] no cigar:
Awesome. Thanks!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] techspecs:
Yeah, twas me with the brick. Like I said at the time, I didn't doubt the guide or the community. I got a new S3 and rooted without incident. In my post mortem from the brick, there were several questionable things at play. Mainly I was using a virtualized instance of Windows 8 to do the Odin stuff on my Mac. Windows 8 is sketchy compared to Windows 7 for this stuff and the VM was adding unneeded risk. I went to a Windows 7 laptop with a known high quality cable and things were fine.

My advice is to not get cute and try to use a VM and must importantly to verify the checksums on the files you flash. Always. Not just with Odin but with your roms in cwm etc. Good luck!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stvnx7:
Step 6: VRBL w/ 4.1.2

Hi,

In step #6, the options do not match what I have.

When I go to Settings --> About Phone --> I have 4.1.2 but baseband says VRBL.

Which link do I use?

Thanks,

Steven
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SlimSnoopOS:
Look at my previous post about the baseband and bootchain.

You are matching the bootchain to your build number. Which judging by your baseband is likely VRBLK3.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] zachf714:
It's really like htc phones as long as you don't cut off during a radio or bootloader flash you are ok :)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stvnx7:
Thank you, I will do as suggested.

I am running into problems in Step 3. I used Clockwork (non-touch) and it says "success (0) / fail (0)". I do have "auto-reboot" unchecked. I then tried the touch version and I get the same output. When I look at the Youtube Video, it has a lot of text passing by, which mine does not.

Not sure what I am doing wrong. Step 2 went well, I believe.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] zachf714:
You flashed the firsr bootchain before the recovery then the stock one right
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] phoenixus:
Does it matter what USB mode your phone is in the first time you connect it to the computer? I know you go to odin download mode for the actual flashing, but I just hooked it up for the first time with the phone on to get the drivers all squared away
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stvnx7:
I did. That seemed to go well. I will start from the beginning and see what happens.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] zachf714:
Do you have the drivers installed and usb debugging enabled
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stvnx7:
I did it again and everything worked fine.

The problem was when I was installing the SU and Bootloader - it was doing zip signature verification and that failed.

I didn't see the option to turn this off in the recovery w/o touch, but I did see it in the recovery with.

Now to download / install a ROM. Which one, which one.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] wrigbone:
There is not way to check the integrity of this file huh? -> SuperSU_Bootloader_FIXED.zip
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] zachf714:
Try downloading the zip again because you need it to flash roms
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] phoenixus:
Woot! Just ran through all the steps and lastly, restored the MD3 bootchain.

Rooted and unlocked! Thanks all!

Short of trying to flash a rom, is there any way to verify the bootloader is unlocked?

Also, I haven't used CWM recovery since the droid 2 days. To make an nandroid backup is still just choosing the "backup to external SD card" right?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stolly08:
If Ez Unlock will let u unlock then your rooted...
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] phoenixus:
Ah, but I used the combo zip file from the OP that has SU and unlock all in one...
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stvnx7:
OK, after I went through all the steps, I tried installing a ROM (wiped everything through TWRP), but I keep getting a symlink failed error.

Did I miss a step? :(

[EDIT]

I think I might have gone a little wipe crazy.

Under the wipe menu in TWRP, I wiped everything.

TWRP said that I was no longer rooted so I installed the SU & Bootloader zip file again.

But I am still getting this error:

symlink error

Error in /external_sd/CleanROM... (Status 7)

[/EDIT]
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] phoenixus:
Is it possible to unroot/relock/restore stock recovery without flashing a stock file? Basically just curious if it's possible to undo and still keep all your data
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] wrigbone:
Can someone help a brotha out here? I have read everything and am still a bit confused about a couple things.

By doing this does my radio/modem stay on the garbage one Verizon just pushed to me?

If I wanted to basically step down to the last version (VRBMB1) would I have to "restore" that bootchain and then DL and flash the matching radio(modem) in Odin?

If I want to try a custom ROM does that get flashed on top of these "bootchains"?

I've have never heard the term bootchain and I work in IT. Coming from the old HTC rooting process here I think has me all twisted up :eek: With the Dinc nothing would even work if you didn't have the matching radio. Are "bootchain", "kernel" and "firmware" all different pieces???
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] techspecs:
1 this won't change your modem. You need to do it separately. 2 You don't need do any more boot chain stuff. There is a modem thread here somewhere. Grab the one you want and it would flash in recovery. Avoid using Odin unless you have to (like the root process or restoring to full stock for warranty) Odin has more risk in something going very wrong than in recovery. Virtually all activity one you're unlocked should happen in recovery with .zip files. 3. Flash the zip file for the Rom in recovery. Do a factory reset in recovery first and optionally also wipe cache. If you flash an AOSP Rom you'll need Google apps (gapps) in addition to the Rom.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] joshua5683:
You are supposed to only wipe data/cache/dalvik cache/system before flashing a rom, hopefully there was nothing important on your SD cause I think you wiped it. I think you need to restore to stock with a factory image and do the root process again. When twrp says you lost root I'm pretty sure it's just a glitch, I just choose do not fix and it's fine

Sent from my SCH-I535
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] wrigbone:
Thanks for this...I'm almost there.

I think I get it now. This process is mostly about defeating the locked bootloader and gaining root and then it's just like the HTC with wiping and flashing ROMs in CWMR.

I was one of the folks who had (is having) issues with the latest OTA so for now I just want my phone back to the state is was in before. I understand the radio is the issue with the latest OTA so should I follow the OP all the way through and install VRBMD3 and after all that flash an older radio through CWMR?

One last question please...I have my phone in USB Debugging mode all the time for PdaNet. Should I un-check this before starting or will it not matter?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stvnx7:
Thanks. I don't have a factory image available. Can you point me to one?

There was nothing on the SDCard that was important to me.

Thanks for the help!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] techspecs:
Yeah, go through this guide and then downgrade the radio/modem in cwm. You can leave the debug enabled all the time. I do. Remember that this all happens in recovery anyway so the usb debug isn't a factor.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] joshua5683:
http://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=22979706399753144 (taken from http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1974114)

Download the file, then flash it with odin. It might take up to 10 minutes or so to finish. Then you will be stock and then go through the root guide again
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] airmaxx23:
Thanks for the guide, I used it today to root 2 - GS3s for a couple of friends. The only thing that was strange was that in step 4 I never got asked if I want to "disable recovery flash" but everything worked great.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] wrigbone:
So everything was going fine until I fat fingered the "Yes - Disable recovery flash" and think I hit the no button. Where am with the recovery? What did I do? Start over at this point? Not sure what recovery flashed (Stock)?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stvnx7:
The same thing happened to me. I am not sure if this means I am not rooted / unlocked.

I can install Clean ROM that's for sure.

---------- Post added at 10:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 PM ----------

Thank you! I did as you suggested and followed this guide:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1974114

I still can't install CleanROM though. I might try another ROM and see if that works. Like airmaxx23 said in another post, I never got the confirmation to "disable recovery flash."
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] :
Thanks, this helped me out. I tried so many times letting it reboot on its own and I could never get into recovery.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] droidstyle:
This post is slightly misleading...you can also simply flash a rooted odin image aka root66 VRALK3 Jelly Bean and save a lot of time...then flash a custom recovery via ez recovery. the only downfall is the size of the download, but imo is a easier method for new users. I like your method aswell, but its not the only way...just saying.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] JuanNut:
Uh yeah. I'm not new to flashing (hehe) but even then it took me an hour to get it done. I kept trying to speed it up and not follow the directions exactly, but eventually it finally took. If all else fails, read the directions eh? (Don't tell my wife I said that ;)). Also it doesn't hurt to read through the thread to pick up any tips and tricks.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] open1your1eyes0:
In order to just root, Steps 1-3 are all required. Step 4 is optional but recommended for piece of mind.

Are you able to boot into your recovery? Which version of recovery are you using TWRP or CWM?

You are currently on the ICS build and will have to accept the OTA as this guide was specifically designed for Jelly Bean OTA.

If you notice the 3rd bullet for Step 1 I link to a thread that details exactly how to get into both Recovery and ODIN modes.

It's always a good idea to have as many partitions as close to your current build as possible. If you currently have VRBLK3 but some of your partitions are older you may want to update them as well. The VRBLK3 bootchain is good start.

Of course other methods are always possible but I am specifically making that statement in context of this method as I want to avoid people thinking they can skip Step #2 and go right to Step #3 if all they want is root. Just to clarify,

in context of this thread

, flashing a custom recovery is required before you can root or unlock your bootloader.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] droidxxxxx:
I followed all the steps and I must say it went very smoothly.. Flashing with Odin is new for me but it works very well and very easily.. It's good to know that is there.. And flashing unlocked bootloader and custom ROM was very easy as well thank you for writing that up in such good detail..