yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Updated rooting section to include links to rooting steps / how to flash recovery instead of directing members to outdated guides

Rooting the phone

When you go through the process of rooting the phone, you have to alter the ROM. Although the risks of this are very minimal, we couldn't technically say it was risk free. The process of rooting puts a binary (called "su") in /system/bin (remember we talked about that earlier?). This binary is what allows the user (you) to run things at an elevated privilidge (super user). That in itself would be quite risky, so rooting also gives you one of the superuser apps (there are 2 - SuperSU and SuperUser, both very good). These apps install to /system/app and act as a gateway. Essentially, these apps prompt you when another application wants "root access" so you can allow it or deny it. It's a form of protection against malicious intent.

Root is often enough for most people who simply want to run a few root apps, but many people will need to replace their stock recovery with a custom recovery. This is because you cannot flash custom roms from the stock recovery. Some methods of rooting give you root AND recovery. Some just give you root, but you can flash a recovery yourself using Odin and download mode. Technically you do not need root to flash a recovery and then flash a custom ROM as the rom will include /system/bin/su and /system/app/SuperSU anyway.

Odin is a useful Windows tool. You'll be using this to return your phone back to stock too by flashing a stock "firmware"

Please read Samsung Galaxy S3 General Sticky Roll-Up Thread ***Stickies found here!** to find all the rooting and flashing guides you need for the GT-i9300

If I were asked my opinion on how to root, I would recommend one of the 2 scenarios.

1) You want root only. No custom ROMs, kernels etc. Just root, just to use root apps.

CF Auto Root Via Odin

Why? Tried and tested method, simple to use. No need to choose what exploit you want to use as it's tailored for your device.

What does it do? It gives you a stock recovery (so can't flash things) and roots the Android OS

The Steps:

1) Download the Latest Odin

2) Download CF-Auto-Root for your model

3) Follow These steps to root

2) You want to flash custom ROMs / Kernels

If you want root on your existing Android ROM, you can do 1) first. Then flash a recovery of your choice (CWM, Philz, TWRP) via Odin

However, if you immediately plan on flashing a ROM, there's no need to root your existing ROM. Simply skip straight to installing a recovery. Backup then flash what you like.

The Steps:

1) Download the Latest Odin

2) Download recovery of your choice CWM, Philz, TWRP

3) Follow The steps to Flash Philz recovery (But for the recovery of your choice)

These steps can also be followed to update recvoery to newer versions
[Galaxy S III General] joex87:
One question, i did this... i rooted my stock rom with cf-auto root, no custom rom , no custom kernel... but the flash counter says 1. but you said with this method the counter stays 0, why is that?

im not complaining or anything, i just want to learn how it works... (the flash counter thing)
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Thanks. Its because I'm wrong. Reading the cfar thread again, it does increase it.
[Galaxy S III General] slaphead20:
What I did was flash stock,, root with auto root, install mobile Odin and flash again with auto root checked, full wipe and it seemed to give me zero count/system normal
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Moved Post 2 to Post 3. Expanded post 1 into Post 2 as post 1 breached maximum limit.

Expanded information on ROMs and Basebands and RILs
[Galaxy S III General] Dibbley247:
This is what ive been looking for!

Ive just got into the android world, and woukd like to get into "playing around" but am scepticle about it as I know things can mess up if you dont UNDERSTAND anything.

I do however have some questions.

Im from the UK, so is my GT-i9300 classed as international

Im not sure (yet) if my phone is locked to my network, if so, do I need to unlock it before I can root it.

Creating back ups, is kies effective enough if something goes wrong, or is there a specific way of backing up particular folders?

Many thanks, and a good thread!
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
All GT-i9300's are "international". The GT-i9305 (LTE) is also "international". SIM lock has no relevance to rooting. KIES is not a suitable backup tool for rooted users. Have a read of the backup section at the beginning of this thread
[Galaxy S III General] Dibbley247:
Thanks very much!!!

I seen some threads say before rooting, one of the prerequisites is to have the phone unlocked (from network) so im glad thats cleared up from a site like this!
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Some phones require the bootloader be unlocked - but not this one
[Galaxy S III General] dokta-d:
backup efs

Hi. Love this thread albiet I found it too late. I used es explorer to av a look round and noticed my efs folder is empty.

My imei number is still showing and everything seems fine but before I flash a CR i was gonna backup everything u suggest.

I used odin to root but CWM didn't stick so when it booted nothing changed. I ran titanium and it said no root access. So i used framaroot and rebooted. Tried titanium again and it said rooted. So I'm rooted with stock recovery.

So have I already emptied my efs by framaroot/odin or can es explorer just not see it?

Also the qpst backup program with the efs and then cwm backups are these everything I need or is it overkill? Will a backup from cwm not do all this. I also backed up using titanium and nandroid manager.

I'm just confused as to all these backups.

Any help would be much appreciated.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Suggest you flash a recovery by Odin or Mobile Odin. If you use Philz recovery, you can also set a custom backup job to backup efs

You would have to enable root explorer settings in ES to see EFS, although, why are you doing that? If you want a backup of EFS, use an application

You need:

Titanium - backup your apps and data

SMS backup+ or similar - backup sms

Recovery - nandroid backups

EFS backup app - backup EFS

QPST is for Qualcomm phones. The i9300 is not Qualcomm so it wont work
[Galaxy S III General] dokta-d:
[Q=rootSU;45434259SMS ggest you flash a recovery by Odin or Mobile Odin. If you use Philz recovery, you can also set a custom backup job to backup efs

You would have to enable root explorer settings in ES to see EFS, although, why are you doing that? If you want a backup of EFS, use an application

You need:

[LIST]

[*]Titanium - backup your apps and data

[*]SMS backup+ or similar - backup sms

[*]Recovery - nandroid backups

[*]EFS backup app - backup EFS

[/LIST]

QPST is for Qualcomm phones. The i9300 is not Qualcomm so it wont work[/QUOTE]

Ah great thanks. I forgot to say my phone is the i9305 so need to do the qpst right?

I just wanted to see if i could see the efs files before i backed them up. Just unsure as to why it was empty but I know now thank-you.

So ive done a titainium backup . Check

Ive also done a nandroid manager backup which ended up being nearly 3g in size. Shall i get rid of that?and nandroid manager?

Il do the qpst and efs using instructions and progs from this forum.

When thats done i was gona use odin to flash philz recovery then backup that way too.

If sms is just for messages I'm not too bothered about that unless I need to?

Also do i save the backups to my ext SD card or phone mem or PC or all 3?
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Only the US devices are Qualcomm. Both the i9300 and i9305 are Exynos quad core.
[Galaxy S III General] Dibbley247:
recovery

I would like to clear something up for myself about backups:

Before rooting I can take a backup with the software provided with the phone.

Then I root i eed to create a backup with something else like nandroid.

Now, what happens if something went a bit wrong, or I didn't actually make much use of it rooted. How would I put this back to as I had it before rooting? And would I need to do anything else to clear things like "flash counter" i've seen pop up which would void warrently.

Thanks.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Well here is a question. And typically it depends how you intend to use your phone with custom roms etc.

Lets assume you root your existing rom and don't intend changing it.

Well if you're not changing rom, there can be no data conflicts. So you could flash the same rom (officially) and your existing data should remain in tact.

If you do plan on updating the rom, you could always flash stock official of the rom you end up with.

However, if you're going to go the aosp way whose data will be incompatible, I would suggest before flashing aosp, take a nandroid backup. Always keep titanium backup topped up on a schedule. 1 per week minimum.

So lets say you're on aosp... restore your nandroid, restore titanium user data only (as described in op) then flash stock official

When returning to stock, follow the guide as linked in post 2. One of them details use of triangle away....

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[Galaxy S III General] Dibbley247:
At the moment, i would like to sort out the audio issue which there is a fix for on here, as all the apps ive tried are a bit gash, its much more quiet when plugging in the aux to my home amp.

And the only type of thing ive done is modify low level programing on robots, which is same coding as vb, so im making sure im researching mich as possible.

All this "flashing a ROM" etc I need to undersrand better, im more of a learn by doing, but this is something I dont want to learn by having to go out and get another phone :)

Thanks
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
You'll get there! Read and re-read this thread

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[Galaxy S III General] Dibbley247:
So in short.

Rooting the phone does not actually change the look or use ability in a sense, it just gives you access to all the files lime admin.

And flashing roms - is making a custom os/or a change to something?

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this????
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
No problem, ask here by all means.

Root is really just changing your (as the user) permissions. It literally gives you access to areas of the memory you normally would not have.

To Flash a ROM is to Flash the Android OS. IF you Flash a ROM, you are overwriting the current Android OS with another version (or the same version) of the Android OS. Not all flashings is Flashing ROMs though. You can also flash mods, themes, Kernels, Recovery.... Flashing is the process, or the vehicle if you like of getting specific changes (as listed previously) onto the phone.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Thread update, added an MSpaint emmc diagram and explanation:

More advanced layout of the GT-i9300

Here we have a lovely MS paint diagram of the eMMC layout of the GT-i9300. Some of this you don't need to know, some of it you do.

1 BOTA0 - mmcblk0p1 - 4 MB

2 BOTA1 - mmcblk0p2 - 4 MB

3 EFS - mmcblk0p3 - 19.7M

4 PARAM - mmcblk0p4 - 8 MB

5 BOOT - mmcblk0p5 - 8 MB

6 RECOVERY - mmcblk0p6 - 8 MB

7 RADIO - mmcblk0p7 - 33 MB

8 CACHE - mmcblk0p8 - 1 GB

9 SYSTEM - mmcblk0p9 - 1.48 GB

10 HIDDEN - mmcblk0p10 - 587 MB

11 OTA - mmcblk0p11 - 8 MB

12 USERDATA - mmcblk0p12 - 11.4 GB

The above sizes are approximate and the diagram is not to scale.
[Galaxy S III General] Dibbley247:
Im getting my head round it now! Would this be a good one to start with, as this is the reason I wanted to root it.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1722136
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Actually, there is an Audio / sound thread in general you should read. Sound is (with exception to bluetooth audio) Controlled by the Kernel. It would probably suit you better to try one of the kernels with sound engines. Not only can they yield higher volumes, but also better sound quality too. I would definitely recommend that over a mod.
[Galaxy S III General] Dibbley247:
I will take a look tomorrow! Thanks for all the advice and patience
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
No probs. We prefer answering many questions before hand than trying to help someone who doesn't know what they're doing fix a broken phone - Particularly when they don't understand the instructions we give, so your approach is definitely the best one :)
[Galaxy S III General] dokta-d:
help understanding backups and roms

Hi all, noob here, great thread btw. Might I ask a couple of questions

First my status: s3 gt-i9305 lte 4.1.2 stock android

1-I'm rooted

2-got philz recovery

3-made a backup using philz to ext.sd card 2.7gb

4-titainium backup - 1gb -ext.sd

5-efspro backup bout 2.9mb -ext.sd

6-imei/nv files using qualcomm 249kb -ext.SD

7-also used nandroid manager backup 2.7gb -ext.sd

8-have copies of all on my pc

Here come the questions :

1. Am I done backing up?

2. Can I go ahead and flash a CR now?

3. Saw on a website carbon rom is available for my phone but can't find it on xda is it a wind up?

3a.It also says its 4.3 if its legit will it work on my 4.1.2 ?

4.do I need nandroid manager as well as titanium backup/are they the same thing?

5.I'd like a rom that is fast and saves battery life and is stable-is there a top ten or something?

6.does my baseband (bvbmf1) or build number (jz054k.i9305bvbmf1) matter at all when flashing CR's ?
[Galaxy S III General] jamesaceduos:
Can I root my samsung galaxy s3 with recovery without odin. I had used framaroot but its not working
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Not anymore. When framaroot worked, you could use mobile odin. Now you need pc odin

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[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
1 yes but keep taking nandroids via philz before every flash. Run titanium on a schedule

2 sure, if you're confident

3 im really not sure. Indexes can miss things. Best to do a search of xda

3a yes. Previous rom irrelevant. Flashing rom overwrites previous

4 you don't need nandroid manager if youre using philz

5 no. The answer differs from person to person. Discussions often end in arguments and abuse being hurled so these questions are not allowed here in xda. Try them all and see what works for you

6 for the most part, no. I don't know if (like the i9300) July basebands alter phone to EFS v2. Keep EFS backed up.

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[Galaxy S III General] Petesky:
Whats step 6 ? I made a nandroid backup and backed up my EFS folder in 3 different ways and thought that was me good to go
[Galaxy S III General] dokta-d:
backup with qualcomm

There's a thread here that explains how to do this. Im a noob so don't know if theres another way but philz recovery backs this up too apparently.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1946915
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Dont think this works on i9300 though.
[Galaxy S III General] tmac31:
thank you for thread. i want to ask something not sure that i can ask here but sorry anyway. i searched but couldnt find. i want to go back to stock for warranty. i am rooted and have i9300 googy max kernel on mf6 stock rom. i can use triangle away it resets but like you know counter come back to 1 again after reboot.so what can i do about it?

can i just flash stock rom then root and use triangle away and again flash stock rom to get rid of root and everything back to official samsung ?

or i just need to reset counter on my build atm then without rebooting just go in to download mod after reset and flash stock rom and im back to stock and original again?

or i must go back to 4.0.4 bootloader then reset?

thank you for your help!!
[Galaxy S III General] Petesky:
Is step 6 necessary
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Have a read of the return to stock guide linked in post 2. It goes into detail about triangle away and how to use.

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[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
It's not even possible on a i9300. Just ensure you have a few EFS backups

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[Galaxy S III General] Myrrhman:
Hey guys, new to samsung here (had a HTC One X, but swapped it for samsung after 6 repairs !!),

so please forgive me if I'm asking something simple.:o Was quite familiar with flashing ROMs on the One X, but it's back to basics now. :D

I have just gotten the Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE I9305 (international) and would like to root it soon (probably after the android 4.3 update in october).

I've done some research and searched some threads, but I just want to be sure:

Is my bootloader locked or unlocked and if so ,does it need unlocking to root?? :confused:

I

only

want to root, nothing more, no ROMs; no custom recovery;.....etc.

Thank you for this thread, one of the first comments was that every Phone-Model thread could use one. And I agree, it's very useful.

Thanx

Thomas
[Galaxy S III General] mr. phillip:
I speak for my I9300, but i believe it's the same for yours... there is no need to unlock bootloaders on SGS3, just root away... with all due precautions, of course...
[Galaxy S III General] Myrrhman:
Ok thanks :good: What got me worried was this line on Chainfire's Auto-Root Repository site (http://autoroot.chainfire.eu/)

''If you have locked bootloaders, flashing one of these will probably brick your device - with the exception of Nexus devices, which will usually automatically "OEM unlock" and wipe your data !''

(sorry used al my thanks last night.I'll do it first thing tomorrow;) )
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Added "/5" to the bootloader section in post 1

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[Galaxy S III General] Myrrhman:
Thank you you guys for the clarifications :good: :D

(Thanks for you too, first thing tomorrow)(...if i'm not busy playing GTA V haha;))
[Galaxy S III General] beansnorice:
Thank you. New to the s3 fourms had an evo 4g og and it fell last night and went into early retirement. Can't wait to wrap my hands on a s3 and see what it can do.
[Galaxy S III General] raymond1688:
Probably one of the most comprehensive guide I've seen for rooting. Thanks!
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
You're welcome.. I only wish more people were like you and read it

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[Galaxy S III General] Rash732:
Hello

---------- Post added at 08:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:50 PM ----------

Actually I update my s3 to 4.3 from 4.1.2 now I facing many bugs I want downgrade my device ppl said if u downgrade flash via odin u will lose imei and no network ?????
[Galaxy S III General] Barney1954:
Go to SamMobile site. I have a I9300 also. There is a I9300 4.2 2 leak that I flashed on my S3 I9300. I have been using it without problems. The date of the work should be May 22,2013 listed in the leak.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Just dont go older than mg4.

Read general > sticky roll-up thread > imei / EFS

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[Galaxy S III General] saijm4444:
Overwrite

One doubt, will a Rom flash of, say, an AOSP Rom over a custom stock-based one, without wipe, be ok?

Until now, I have and wiped data before flash of a different kind of Rom.

The one time I didn't it gave me a bootloop.( Did with stock over custom stock-based)
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
If you are changing Types of ROM you MUST wipe data
[Galaxy S III General] saijm4444:
How do I then restore settings? I made quite a lot of changes.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
All covered in the opening posts of this thread, go back and have another read.
[Galaxy S III General] saijm4444:
In the opening posts, you have said not to restore settings through TB.

How then do I do it?
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Not system app settings. You must not restore them. If you're not happy setting your own ringtones and wallpapers etc after flashing roms, then dont flash roms.
[Galaxy S III General] saijm4444:
Right....
[Galaxy S III General] abaaaabbbb63:
System data is different from ROM to ROM, and may be structured in a different way. It may just break a ROM , or make it not run properly.
[Galaxy S III General] leio rusher:
This is very informative piece of thoughts

TroySkyNet
[Galaxy S III General] alasamorph:
Recoverinf memory on internal SD

HI

Many thanks for taking the trouble to provide this over-view of the S£.. I found it very helpful...

My memory usage on my SGS3 was 11.6 Gby (out of 12!) and the phone was getting very hard to use. . I have tried all sorts to reduce the usage but have had almost no effect so...

I have 1Gby user apps/data which I backed up (using CWM and TB). Deleted apps/data... did a CWM factory reset/wipe, rebooted and phone came back up with ... 9.8Gby used space, I haven't put the user apps back yet, so the 'system' is taking up all this space. I also noticed the factory reset/wipe did not delete stuff on the internal SD card, directories I created are still there.

Can one of the above suggestions get me back my phones 'as bought' and solve the 'bloatware' problem. Can the Samsung installation really be using almost 10Gby of the internal SD. ? Also, if I may, Is there a EEPROM to flash AND the internal (12Gby) SD or are these the same. I am very reluctant to erase the SD, if I can find out how! if this is ACTUALLY the Samsung phone installation.

The techniques for 'flashing; a ROM, mean a new EEPROM, NOT the Internal SD?? Yes?

The phone is getting to be useless unless I can get rid off a lot of the native stuff... My own apps/data only take up around 1Gby, so this all seems a bit ridiculous.

Would your technique here, solve this...

Thanks for your time

Cheers

Paddy
[Galaxy S III General] ardahan:
Great Post

Definitely one of the best how to/manual I've encountered for a long time.

Great to know all of the background information before doing the act of rooting :)

Keep up the good work :good:
[Galaxy S III General] wotuw:
Thank you very much for this great guide.

I have a question regarding Wipe in TWRP recovery. I want to select all partitions available in TWRP's Advanced Wipe (including Internal Storage). Does this also wipes /efs partition? I mean I am about to select "Internal Storage" to be wiped besides Dalvik Cache, Cache, System, Data, and micro SDcard. Then adb sideload a custom ROM to be installed.

Your help is really appreciated.
[Galaxy S III General] faaktoo:
Why just IMEI secret code works With ParanoidAndroid ROM?

After I put the ParanoidAndroid ROM I can't anymore test my phone.

Secret code want to work anymore.

Can anyone explain why?

Thank you
[Galaxy S III General] noknot:
I have been searching for weeks for this! Asking too many questions in mean time. I have the SPH-L710 maybe that's way I did not find it sooner. Thank you
[Galaxy S III General] lyoddxd:
Hello! I know i am reviving an old thread, but i need some help with my s3 lte. the problem is described here http://xdaforums.com/galaxy-s3/help-i9305/help-please-help-makeext4fs-t3380341 . Any help would be greatly appreciated.
[Galaxy S III General] JoelC:
Just moved my wife onto the S3 I9300 and was looking for a good thread... Found it! Thanks OP for all your hard work, appreciated...