[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S 4] dravenvlad:
Ok..so this is my first post and I hope it's in the correct spot. I've found a way to root the Verizon wireless galaxy s4 with android 5.0.1 lollipop build LRX22C.I545VRUGOF1 with kingoroot (not kingroot) and then replacing kingoroot superuser with chainfire's supersu and removing the annoying kingoroot.

Notes: 1. I was playing around with this for a while with different versions of the kingoroot app before I got all the steps right so I'm not sure if this method will work with the latest version of kingoroot as they have updated it to remove some of the tampering problems I believe to keep you using their app but I didn't delete all of the kingroot.supersu folders as described in step 7 when I had the latest version installed and it wouldn't let the SuperSu app update the binaries it just stayed on the updating screen. It may work with the latest version if you delete the folders following step 7 I just had the earlier version installed when it worked. I'm rooted with SuperSu confirmed by Root Checker. I will list the apps I used and versions below. 2. The galaxy s4 with android 5.0.1 build LRX22C.I545VRUGOF1 from verizon can't flash twrp or cwm that I know of at the moment so I couldnt use NonStickAtom785s method as i couldnt select the correct kernel. I thank him for his info though. I may be wrong and there may be an easier way to root or switch from kingoroot superuser to SuperSu. If there is please comment. This is just the way I figured out how to root mine by combining information I found here on xda from all the awesome users. 3. You may want to scan your phone with an Antivirus app after you download the below apks and before proceding just to make sure your don't have any vulnerabilities. Here we go!

Step 1. Download and install ES file explorer from play store if you don't already have it. Current version as of this post and what I used was 4.1.6.7.9.

Step 2. Download kingoroot.apk version 3.0 (or latest version..see notes above) and the supersu version 2.79.apk

Step 3. Make sure you have unknown sources checked in your phone settings and install kingoroot. The earlier version, version 3.0, says this app may be harmful but just click on more info and click allow install. Once installed open kingoroot from your apps launcher. Press the one click root button and wait for it to finish rooting the phone. Once that is done back out to your home screen.

Step 4. Open the superuser app from your apps launcher that kingoroot installs while rooting and use it to remove/uninstall what you can of the KNOX system apps. They usually have a little shield beside of them. Once they are uninstalled close superuser.

Step 5. Open ES file explorer and open the menu from the top left. Scroll down until you see the root explorer switch and tap it to turn switch it on. Grant kingoroot permission to have root acess. Now tap the words root explorer to open up the root explorer menu and select mount R/W. Change the paths / and /system from RO to RW and click ok. Open the menu again click local then download or navigate to where you downloaded the supersu.apk. Rename supersu-2.79-xxx.apk to base.apk. Long press base.apk and select copy at the bottom of the screen. Open menu at the top left again and under local select device. Then click on the data folder and then select app folder. Find the folder listed kingoroot.supersu and open it. Select paste at the bottom of the screen and it will ask if you want to overwrite base.apk. Select continue to overwrite. Now back out of ES file explorer and restart your phone. When it restarts it should say android updating and under that it'll say apps 1/1. It only takes a few seconds, what it's doing is adding supersu to your app launcher.

Step 6. Once phone is booted open ES file explorer again and navigate back to the kingoroot.supersu folder and open it local/device/data/app/kingoroot.supersu

Click on the file base.apk and selet the android package installer to install supersu. Once installed back out to your home screen and restart your phone again.

Step 7. Once phone is booted up open es file manager one more time. Navigate back to local/device/data/app. You should now have a folder named eu.chainfire.supersu. Open the menu and click local and then click device. Now use the magnifying glass at the top right to search for kingoroot.supersu. It should find some file folders and one icon with a .png extension. Delete these file folders and icon with ES file manager by long pressing on one of the folders and then check marking the rest and clicking the trash can at the bottom. DO NOT use a Uninstaller to remove kingoroot superuser, use ES file explorer to manually delete these. Once those are deleted back out of or close ES file explorer.

Step 8. Open your app launcher and open the app SuperSu. It will tell you that the su binaries need to be updated. Select continue and then select normally. It should say updating binaries and even though you have uninstalled all of the KNOX components you may get a pop up message asking if you want SuperSu to disable KNOX. If it does select ok and you should receive a message saying KNOX disabled. The binaries should update and it will recommend that you restart the phone. Select restart now or ok and back out to your home screen and then reatart. I backed out to home screen and restarted manually. Now you s4 is rooted and you have supersu as the superuser app and you can uninstall the kingoroot app from your apps launcher. Also look under the application manager of your phone under all apps and see if kingoroot superuser is listed with a blank icon...if it is just click it and click uninstall. You can also now go to play store and update your SuperSu app to the latest version which is 2.82 as of this post. That's it. Please feel free to post or message me if you have any problems and I will help you the best I can.

Step 9. Optional: You can go back to es file explorer and open up the root menu and select Mount R/W and change the paths / and /system back from RW to RO. I recommend this unless you plan on writing to these particular paths.