[Samsung Galaxy S8 & S8+ Cross Device Development] Henniesnijman:
Rooted on Open China ROM

I tried rooting SM-G9500 dual SIM on its native Hong Kong ROM but had some issues with Factory Reset Protection (FPR) continually popping up and making my life difficult.

After the phone was rooted, the moment I add a single Google account FPR would return and lock my phone the first time I restart it.

VERY annoying.

I tried the China ROM bootloader with the Hong Kong ROM but that didn't work at all.

So after spending WAY too much time trying to root my Galaxy SM-G9500 (Hong Kong Version), here's what finally worked for me:

0. Download the "Open China ROM" and install it on your Galaxy SM-G9500 (snapdragon variant, Hong Kong version)

ROM details:

Country / Region China (Open China)

PDA	G9500ZCU2AQK8

Product CodeCHC

CSC	G9500CHC2AQK8

Phone	G9500ZCU2AQK8

Download it from UPDATO (thanks Cameron)

Use Odin that you'll download a little later in this post & flash the Open China ROM.

After it restarts select "English United States" & allow the install the finish.

There is no "Google Play" on the China ROM so there's no "Factory Reset Protection" to worry about.

Happy days.

Now start with the root procedure as outlined by Jasec.

1. On your phone, open Settings, go to "Cloud and Accounts" -> "Accounts".

2. Select your Samsung account, open menu, remove account. (That will make sure reactivation lock is disabled. Alternatively you can disable reactivation lock without delete your Samsung account. Result should be same. )

3. Download, install and run official unlock tool, CROM service. (I skipped this step as I had done it before during my trials, probably best that you include it)

4. Your phone is unlocked and ready to flash TWRP at this stage. Now you can proceed to part 1.

5. On your phone, open Settings, go to "Cloud and Accounts" -> "Accounts", doubel check that you don;t have any Google accounts.. a GMAIL account also qualifies as Google. Select ALL Google accounts & remove them. just in case.

:)

Part 1 - HOW-TO FLASH TWRP:

1. Download and Install Samsung Mobile Phones Drivers.

- Option 1: Download and Install Smart Switch for PC.

- Option 2: Download and Install standalone driver package.

2. Download and extract Odin (Samsung's Flash Tool) to your computer.

3. Download a .tar image of TWRP.

I installed "twrp-3.1.1-1-dreamqlte.img.tar" seeing as it is now available - just Google it..

4. Reboot your device to download mode.

- Hold [VOLUME DOWN] + [BIXBY] + [POWER] for approx. 15 seconds.

5. Open Odin and place that TWRP tar file in the [AP] slot.

6. Connect your phone.

7. Hold [VOLUME UP] + [BIXBY] + [POWER] on your phone and then press start on Odin. (** all at the same time)

8. Wait for the phone to reboot. DO NOT release [VOLUME UP] + [BIXBY] + [POWER] or you may not reboot into TWRP.

Part 2 - HOW-TO INITIALIZE TWRP: (for new phones)

1. If you completed Part 1 successfully, you should be in TWRP now. At this point, you will reach the screen asking you if you want to allow system modifications.

2. Select "Keep /system RO". (Don't swipe right or you may not be able to boot into system if you failed to complete next steps. However, you can swipe right to allow modifications if you are confident that you can complete next steps.)

3. Go to "Wipe" menu of TWRP and you will find "Format Data". Press "Format Data" and type "yes" to continue.

4. Go to "Reboot" menu and Press "Recovery" to reboot TWRP.

AT THIS STEP YOU CAN DIRECTLY GO TO PART 3 OF THIS GUIDE IF YOU WANT TO ROOT.

5. Download the latest dm-verity and force encryption disabler zip on your computer.

I used "no-verity-opt-encrypt-3.1.zip" - seems to work well.

6. Transfer the zip to your phone.

7. Go to "Install" menu of TWRP and flash the zip.

TWRP is initialized and fully functional at this stage. Now you can either reboot into system or root, flash custom ROMs, Kernels via TWRP.

Part 3 - HOW-TO ROOT:

1. Download a custom kernel with security features disabled.

- Reference: https://xdaforums.com/gal...s8-s8-t3637640

I used "G95X-QCOM-SEMI-STOCK-KERNEL-R1.zip" - again, seems to work well.

1. Download the root package.

- Option 1: Magisk

I used "Magisk-v15.0.zip" - again, seems to do the trick.

2. Transfer the zips to your phone.

3. Flash the kernel.

4. Flash the root package.

reboot.

Now I just need to get Google Play to work on the China (rooted) ROM (that speaks English) and I'm a happy chap.

Thanks to Jasec for the above tutorial & to Cameron for his asisstance.

H.