[Samsung Galaxy S7 Active Questions & Answers] bandario:
Root with unlockg891aboot.tar not currently working.

Just a heads up: Root with the existing unlockg891aboot.tar is not currently working. You will just get a bootloop and no amount of factory resetting will get you out of it.

For international users, here are the steps to go from PI2 to PL4 (Android 7.0)

1) Use Smart Switch to take a backup of your device including apps installed and music stored on internal storage.

2) Reflash your phone to PI2 using the file kindly provided by NotSoMiniGun (Turn off phone, press volume down, home and power and hold until you get warned about custom software, press volume up, connect to PC, Open ODIN-modified and select files for BL, AP, CP, CSC and Pit, press start)

This step is necessary if you have rooted your device or you have frozen or uninstalled any of the factory bloat either with package disabler pro, another utility or manually after root.

3)Let your phone reboot, then step through as much of the setup process as is necessary to get to your home screen. Don’t worry too much about skipping details here as we are about to wipe it again anyway.

4) In settings, tap developer mode 6 times to re-enable dev mode. Go to developer settings and enable USB-debugging again.

5) MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ADB WORKING PROPERLY by issuing the command “adb devices” from your command prompt. This should result in a request for authorisation on your phone and once allowed, a message along the lines of a hash code then the word device. If it says unauthorised, you need to fix this first.

6) Turn off your S7A and let it sit for a few seconds. Hold volume UP, Home and Power until you end up with the android logo then you can let go. The phone will then proceed to the recovery menu.

7) Connect phone via USB, then Use volume key to go down to the option that says apply update from ADB. Use the power button to select.

8) Make sure you have the file SS-G891AUCS2API2-to-U2BPL4-UP that you downloaded earlier (you did download it earlier right?) in your adb folder. Open a command prompt and navigate to your adb folder where both adb and the file are stored. Type the command “adb sideload SS-G891AUCS2API2-to-U2BPL4-UP”

9) Wait. It takes ages. Thankfully there is a % indicator but even if it looks like it has hung, just be patient. It can take over half an hour depending on a bunch of factors.

Your phone should finally reboot. It will hang for longer than normal on the AT&T logo, once again be patient.

This time, take a bit more care when setting up your phone as this will be the setup that you keep. However, I still like to skip putting in my wifi and google accounts at this stage to save the risk of play store trying to download all my apps…seems a bit hit or miss.

That is us done for now. I was going to continue this guide through the process of rooting but it is not currently working. Flashing unlockg891aboot.tar results in a bootloop and no amount of factory resetting will bring it back to life.

Anxiously awaiting some ideas on how we can get around this, if at all. I will play around with 7.0 for a few days and then go back to 6.0.1 if we can’t get root.

Given that there are custom roms for the S7 and S7 edge running the engineering kernel + android 7.0 I would expect that the .tar file can be modified from one of these in the same fashion that it was first modified to give us root on 6.0.1. However, this is beyond my skillset. I don't know where [MENTION=7946048]activefan01[/MENTION] got that file from or if he did it himself, but maybe he can throw some light on this dark corner?