[Galaxy S 5 General] mattyyey:
Hi everyone.

I'm no-one special, but I have rooted several phones. I usually wait till the ability to revert or not trip a counter (knox in this case, but most stock bootloaders have one these days afaik ). I had some spare time and have been researching for the last few hours getting my facts straight before I attempted anything. I now have root.

I'm only writing this because it wasn't too clear on the forums about rooting without tripping knox, even after some searching and reading the stickies.

I have just rooted my S5 (SM-G900F). I can confirm that the knox counter isnt tripped using a samsung phone info app i found (also double checked in dl mode).

before we start, heres some notes:

- So as far as I understand, towelroot works on more than just the SM-G900F but i suggest you check first.

- Using odin will add to your counter if you flash anything other than stock with it afaik. This was the same for me on the S3 but I had triangle away.

- Installing a custom recovery via odin will add to the knox counter obviously.

- Installing a custom recovery via another method might trip knox.

- Flashing a custom ROM will add to the counter. (couldnt anyway without custom recovery)

- Boot into download mode using VOLDOWN, HOME, POWER and click continue (i suggest un-plugging it) this will show u the counter.

- Quick view the counter with this app: Phone INFO Samsung

-With root access it might be possible to do something that will trip knox, even with it "disabled" by supersu. be careful. :angel:

- apparently if you trip knox, you cannot update the radio. quote from alan shore

- OTA updates will probably remove root

- Most places, if you trip the counter, your warranty is void.

- you can fix s health issuses caused by xposed by editing the build.prop (not sure how same that is with knox)

Heres how I did it:

(0. I actually did a OTA and security policy update check before attempting this.)

1. disable security policy updates (security) and automatic updates (about) in the settings. This is just in case. Updates might remove your root.

2. Download tr.apk from towelroot.com/ by clicking the icon. Please note that when i did this Avast AV flagged it up, which i then disabled and re-downloaded the file. Use at your own risk. I had no problems...

3. Enable Unknown Sources (settings->security), copy the apk to your sdcard install. I again got a flag from avast... i clicked ignore :p

4. Run it. Might take a little while...

5. Install SuperSU from the market.

6. Run super su and let it install the su binaries.

7. Depending on what you want root for, you may wish to disable knox using super su (i intend to use xposed so i did). When I attempted to let it disable knox, it failed. As it instructed, I rebooted and ran it again... all done.

Now I installed root checker and titanium backup and had a play. root works. I rebooted and checked download mode, knox counter : 0x0 root is still there after reboot. all done! Make sure you have read and understand the notes before you go off using root.

I hold no responsibility for any damage or loss of data.

I do not claim to have made anything. a big thanks to all the respective contributing devs, esp chainfire for his never ending development for android, and geohot creator of towelroot for making it all possible.

If you have errors and questions the original thread for towelroot is below:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2783157

That's all folks!