[SuperSU] GedBlake:
Hi, All....

For what it's worth, I thought I'd report in with my experiences of updating to the latest (seemingly problematic) version(s) of SuperSU (v2.80 and v2.81) updated via PlayStore...

I have two devices; an HTC One M8 phone running stock Android Marshmallow 6.0/HTC Sense 7.0...

...and a Nexus 9 tablet running Android Nougat 7.1.1 with the latest May security patch update (N4F27B). It's not entirely stock, running the Fire-Ice kernal.

Both of my devices have been rooted for a quite a while, with SuperSU v2.79 RC3 and both devices have TWRP installed.

My HTC One M8 phone

So... on Thursday, via PlayStore, I updated to the (then) latest release (v2.80) of SuperSU and SuperSU Pro and updated the su binary without any problems. Rebooted the phone and root was fully intact, and root based apps performed as expected.

At this point, I was unaware of the difficulties other people where experiencing with this latest version of SuperSU. When I took a look at the (now 'paused'/locked) thread on XDA, I discovered the problems people where having, including problems with AdaWay.

AdaWay seemed to update the hosts file just fine for me on my M8, but then I took a look at the AdaWay settings on my HTC One M8 and discovered I must have disabled the 'systemless' mode setting at some time in the past, and which seems to have some bearing on the reported problems of copying the hosts file. I don't recall disabling this settings, but it doesn't matter with my HTC One M8 because there'll be no further OTAs for this now three year old device. (There are some advantages to having an old device... One of 'em being, you don't have to worry about OTA' s and messing around in /system:) .)

Later on Thursday, SuperSU v2.81 was pushed to PlayStore, and again no problems with updating the SuperSU app or the su binary. The phone rebooted without problems, and again, all apps requiring root perform as expected.

My Nexus 9 tablet

Given the reported problems, I decided to delay updating my Nexus 9 to SuperSU v2.81 until I had the time to reflash it from scratch,

should that be necessary

in the event of a bootloop or other problems.

So, with provisions made for a full reflash, I've just updated my Nexus 9 tablet to SuperSU v2.81 and it (happily ;) ) went without a hitch, including updating the su binary.

The tablet rebooted without problems and everything works as it should, including AdaWay. And on this device, AdaWay DOES have 'systemless' mode enabled.

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So, to summarise...

My HTC One M8 phone running Marshmallow 6.0 had no problems with SuperSU v2.80 and currently has no problems with v2.81...

...and my Nexus 9 tablet running Nougat 7.1.1 with Fire-Ice kernal also has no problems with v2.81.

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I'm not sure if this post is helpful or useful to anybody. I was sort of hoping for a problem or two when updating my Nexus 9 to v2.81, so I could post a logcat or something :) .

Anyhow, I'm sure Chainfire will figure this out and resolve these reported problems.

He's the guy who brought us the FlashFire app, which still amazes me when I run it every month on my Nexus 9 to update to the latest Google security patch. The complexity of that app (check out the FlashFire log output after you've run it!), and what it does is nothing short of amazing IMHO.

I guess when you're developing something as complex as the latest SuperSU root app/package, from time to time, there are going to be the occaisonal problems/mistakes and hiccups, and with v2.80/v2.81 that seems to have happened. It's rare, but it does happen...

Which is probably not much consolation for those with bootloop problems and a locked (and maybe an unlockable) bootloader (and who've maybe rooted by some kind of exploit, such as KingRoot) and for which reflashing the device isn't an option. I honestly have no idea what you'd do in that situation unfortunately.

Rgrds,

Ged.