[Galaxy S 4 General] hawkerpaul:
I was very reluctant to upgrade to the latest bootloader, and understandably so, as Knox caused such a furore.

I was on MGA bootloader and MH1 LTE modem up until about 2 or 3 weeks ago.

However, after researching, for us simple personal users, Knox is basically all hype.

It only really comes into play for devices in the corporate world. Blowing your Knox fuse will not invalidate your Samsung warranty, but your Knox warranty, meaning if you have a handset given out by corporates who are enforcing Knox, then Samsung will no longer consider warranty issues.

Samsung Knox/Rooting statement

On the old bootloader, on a 4.4.2 (and now 4.4.3) ROM I was getting inconsistent wifi and lte. Wifi would often not reconnect properly when I got into work/home. I would have to toggle the wifi off/on for it to come back into life.

I would regularly upgrade to the latest GSM modem, but being on the old bootloader (and therefore on 4.2.2 LTE modem) my LTE connection seemed poor to me. I'm in a borderline LTE area, and switching between 3G and LTE was extremely slow. I would have periods of no data connection at all during the time the handset was swapping between the two modes.

So I eventually thought it was time to upgrade bootloader and LTE modem.

Initially I decided to go the whole hog and flash an entire Samsung Stock NE5 firmware:

1. Nandroid backup

2. Reboot into download mode and Odin-flash stock firmware

3. Reboot immediately into stock recovery

4. Factory reset

5. Reboot...let the first wizard screen get shown

6. Reboot into download mode

7. Odin flash cf-root

8. Reboot back to the initial wizard screen

9. Reboot into download mode

10. Odin flash Philz

11. Reboot recovery

12. Nandroid restore

This way guarantees all the areas not flashed by a custom ROM installation are flashed by the stock firmware, and this gave me peace of mind knowing that my device was fully reset, just how Samsung intended.

Flashing this stock firmware also gave me a NE5 bootloader, GSM modem and LTE modem of course.

I will periodically do this "whole hog" procedure from time to time. I'm in the UK on EE, so when a UK EE firmware becomes available on SamMobile, I will repeat this process.

Since upgrading to the latest BL, I now get tiny red+yellow text in the top left corner of the S4 splash screen on each boot.

Kernel is not seandroid enforcing

Set warranty bit: kernel

This doesnt bother me....In fact I wish the text was bigger so that I could actually read it properly! :D

Now comes to the crux.....2 Questions:

1. Am I glad I did it?

Yes I am. Knox warranty does not bother me in the slightest, and I always had in the back of my mind when I was still on the old bootloader, that I am on a cutting edge device, but still using old 4.2.2 files, LTE modem especially. This niggled me. I was always wondering "Am I getting the best possible performance and reliability out of my S4?"

2. Am I noticing improvements?

Again, yes I am, and I'm sure its not placebo. Since marrying up BL+GSM+LTE to 4.4.2, I've not experienced any wifi reconnecting issues. I am getting a more reliable data connection when outside the range of wifi. It seems to be slicker in the way it handles the switching between 3G and LTE modes. I sometimes get no data, but I put this down to the Smart Radio feature that I enable in GravityBox....This was terrible under the old BL+LTE for me, but now, although not perfect, its acceptable. Previously when I turned the screen on, Smart Radio would then kick in to switch from power saving 2G mode back to LTE. It would literally take a minute or two before my data connection would re-establish properly. Now under 4.4.2 BL+LTE, this happens in seconds.

If you are not on a 4G contract and you are still on the old bootloader, then I would advise you stay as you are, unless you really want to upgrade. However, in my experience, if you are on a 4G contract, and do not have a corporate device, then I wouldn't think twice about it. If you don't care about tripping your knox flag and want the latest BL+GSM+LTE, then just flash Repulsa's files from here and see how it goes.

Now a couple of questions I have regards flashing just the new bootloader onto an already rooted device. I can't test this out now as I'm already Knox 0x1, and only thought about this after the event:

To get on to latest BL+LTE, as I mentioned, I purposely knoxed myself by going down the whole stock firmware flash route to satisfy my OCD of getting a pure device just as samsung intended from which would serve me as a base to work from.

However:

1. I suppose for the already rooted user, it is possible to flash just the new bootloader to allow flashing latest LTE, and just by doing this I assume would still leave knox flag 0x0. Is this correct?

2. As long as you dont odin flash another recovery or odin re-root, I assume you will remain 0x0 permanently provided subsequent flashes are .zips through CWM. Is this correct?

3. CWM flashing custom ROMs wouldnt trip it. Is this correct?

4. Now what I'm unsure about is, the big question, would a CWM flash of say PhilZ Recovery .zip trip it?

If none of these will trip it, then I suppose you could carry on your merry way on a new bootloaded, un-knoxed-tripped new LTE modemed rooted S4! If you ever wanted to go back to pure stock for a unlrelated non-knox samsung a warranty issue, then you could flash stock firmware, and still be un-knoxed-tripped.

Just a thought.....Answers on a postcard please!

:D