[Galaxy S III I9305 (4G LTE + 2GB RAM) Q&A, Help & ] fabecoool:
*** AS I SAID EARLIER I WILL UPDATE THIS OP (Original Post) IN ORDER TO REFLECT ANY INFORMATION THAT COULD BE OF INTEREST ON THE SUBJECT ***

Hi there!

I have bought my device a couple week ago and since I did not know about knox, I just allowed Samsung to install the 4.3 update that was pushed to my device.

I have since decided I want a custom ROM on my phone, and when I started researching, I found out pretty quickly that knox may cause issues.

I don't really care about voiding my warranty, because I have now tested the device and made sure it is works, and I'm usually careful about what I flash.

The thing is, I have read so many things about knox that I don't know what's true and what's not. Unfortunately I don't have all the links to everything I've read, but i'll update this OP with the links later (some posts were worth reading and very interesting)

So, what I've read about once you've got knox:

- You cannot get rid of it (everyone pretty much agree on this)

- There are ways to root without tripping knox to 0x1, so you keep your warranty, but what about unrooting? Or do you just flash a stock rom not rooted? I guess you keep the bootloader as it is?

- even flashing stock 4.3 will trip knox (really? always)

- if you have knox, you cannot flash anything below 4.3, even custom ROMs, or you'll have issues with wifi, etc. (this is what I've read somewhere, what seems to be a fact is that if you try to downgrade the bootloaer to anything smaller then you may break wifi and other features)

- and it gets better: once you've got knox, if you flash a 4.4 ROM (custom, of course, since there is no 4.4 stock for our device yet), there's no going back to anything smaller (not even 4.3)

Some of the above statements are clearly facts at the present time, until knox is cracked, if it is ever, but some of it sounds like BS, or at least i hope it is, because otherwise I'm not about to flash anything :-/

And this is just the beginning, I'll keep updating this post, and I'll try to separate fiction from facts. anyway, feel free to comment on these and give me answers if you know things for a fact (no guesses please).

Now I gotta go, sorry!

Cheers,

fa

Edit:

You will find a lot of threads on knox especially in the Galaxy S4 and Note 3 forums. But I guess most of the info on how knox works is valid for our device as well (I9305).

A lot of people seem to place a lot of hope in one of the greatest Android devs: Chainfire.

Here are a few links with info on knox, for those who like to read:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2447832

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2597774

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2569349

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2447832 <== This is actually a thread you want to follow. Very interesting, but there's a lot to read. If a solution comes to get rid of knox, that's probably one of the first places on XDA where they'll talk about it.

It would be great to know if there is hope to see a knox removal tool.

Meanwhile, I see the following different scenarios. Could you share your experience and tell me how it works for you? As answers trickle in, I'll update this post with the answers themselves or links to the posts where the answer is provided:

1) You don't have knox: lucky you, enjoy and DO NOT UPDATE TO 4.3 or flash a 4.3 ROM with knox bootloader, or you will one day regret it!

2) You have knox. So if I got it right, there is no way to change your bootloader, but there are various scenarios:

a) you don't care because you're happy with stock and no root (then keep moving, nothing to see here, I wonder why you are even reading this...)

b) you want to keep your stock ROM and default kernel, but you want to root. I have read many threads where it is said to be possible. WHAT'S THE BEST WAY FOR THIS?

c) you want to keep your stock ROM but you want another kernel: IS THIS POSSIBLE, and if so, WHAT KERNEL WORKS/DOESN'T WORK?

d) you want to get rid of the whole Samsung ROM, so you want to flash a custom recovery (CWM or TWRP) and a custom ROM/Kernel. So what works, and what does knox prevent you to do in that case?

Cheers,

Fa