[LG V20 Guides, News, & Discussion] runningnak3d:
***WARNING***

This is ONLY for the H910. If you flash H915 firmware on an H918 -- you WILL brick it.​

If you are currently on Oreo, you can root your phone,

but you CAN NOT keep Oreo - for now

. This will downgrade you back to Nougat, which is rootable.

I know this is a long post, but this is also a complicated root procedure. Please read the ENTIRE post before starting.

Also, if you run into a problem, please use the search thread box to see if your problem has already been addressed. It will save having to ask the same questions over and over.

If you want to restore to stock v10q after rooting, you can use this: link.

Standard disclaimer: There are no guarantees in life. No part of this should brick your phone, but if it does somehow, that is on you.

This should work on any H910 version, up to v20g, that is no longer rootable by DirtySanta (IE: dirtycow has been patched). It has been tested on 10m to 20g

Make sure that you have an SD card that has at least 8 gigs of free space. It CAN NOT be formatted FAT, or FAT32. It needs to be exFat or ext4, otherwise the zip won't fit (2 gig file limit on FAT and FAT32).

Make sure you have a working adb environment. I use Linux so hopefully this is a good resource. If not, you will have to Google this yourself: link.

Make sure that you have a working WiFi connection. Part of this process involves installing a terminal emulator. Since the phone will have no signal at that time, you use WiFi, or you can side load.

Download the H915 v10e KDZ: H91510e_00_VTR_CA_OP_1205.kdz.

- WARNING: Do not use any newer H915 firmware, as they all have dirtycow patched (v10p, v10q), and I do not know if they increment ARB.

- If they do increment ARB, then you will be stuck with a phone that can't be rooted, and you can't fix the modem! You have been warned.

Download the patched LG UP from this thread: link.

Make sure you install it in C:\Program Files (x86)\LG Electronics\LGUP or it will either read the wrong model file (if you had a previous installation of LG UP), or it will not be able to find the model file at all.

Put your phone into download mode (power off / hold vol. up / plug in USB cable)

Use LG UP to dump your phone. When you run it, there will be additional radio buttons.

- Pick the one that says DUMP and click Start. You will be asked what partitions to dump, click the "select all" checkbox, and then you can uncheck userdata.

- This is an OPTIONAL but HIGHLY recommended step. It is a good idea to have a full backup of your phone, but with this new procedure, this is no longer needed.

When it is finished, click the PARTITION DL radio button, pick the H915 v10e KDZ that you downloaded above, and click start. Make sure all partitions are checked.

Once it is complete, your phone should reboot into a nice new (old) Freedom Mobile ROM (complete the setup), and you may not have signal.

- If you are on AT&T I understand that you will, but T-Mobile does not. Either way, this is normal.

Before continuing, make sure that you enable developer mode, and enable USB debugging. Also, make sure that your PC is authorized (plug the phone in and touch always allow, and then OK).

Also go ahead and download a terminal emulator -- NOT Termux. I recommend good old "Terminal Emulator for Andorid" -- the first thing that pops up if you search for "terminal"

Download this modified (by modified, I mean it contains all the extras needed to make this work) DirtySanta root package: link.

- Extract this somewhere that you can run adb and fastboot from.

- Check the SHA hash: 88a3a0f90c66a486807da3e69e9fb0a08c779efe

Download the v10r firmware + boot + system here: link (sorry - no time to dump and package 10v)

- Check the SHA hash: 5451146030393e490dcfba3558b620badefe75cd

- This includes v1.0 of the mk2000 kernel

Copy the zip, to your SD card, and insert it in the phone.

- Alternatively, you can use adb to push the zip to your phone while in TWRP. This is NOT supported.

- I switched to having people flash from SD card because too many people were having problems with adb.

- If you want, try it, if it doesn't work, don't ask for help -- use the SD card method!

Open two command windows. In each one change to the directory that you extracted the root package.

In the first one execute:

adb logcat -s dirtysanta

Then in the second one execute:

STEP1.BAT

Wait till you get a prompt back then type (or copy / paste):

run-as con
chmod 0777 /storage/emulated/0/*

Now open up your terminal emulator on your phone and type:

applypatch /system/bin/atd /storage/emulated/0/dirtysanta

Watch the window that has logcat running. When it says to run step 2, execute:

STEP2.BAT

Once fastboot comes up -- it will be a really small red font that says, FASTBOOT MODE. Once that is up, execute:

STEP3.BAT

This is flashing TWRP and the WW 2.0 kernel onto your phone. The phone will reboot once they are flashed.

When it reboots, you will get a very nasty looking warning about the fact that your phone has been compromised and will not boot.

This is due to running the engineering aboot and is normal -- don't panic your phone will boot. You will see this every time the phone reboots.

At this point, you have H915v10e and TWRP. You can now boot into TWRP so that we can flash the H910 firmware back onto the phone:

If you have re-enabled developer mode, and enabled USB debugging, and have your phone connected, you can execute the following in a command window:

adb reboot recovery

Otherwise just pull the battery, put the battery back in, hold vol down + power till the LG logo appears. Release power, and then immediately press and hold it again until you get to a screen that asks if you want to factory reset your phone. Say yes twice and it will take you into TWRP. If the phone had the stock recovery, it would do a factory reset -- however, since you now have TWRP, that is what you are taken to instead. This is a key combination that is embedded into the bootloader that tells it to execute recovery - in this case TWRP. Hope that clears up some confusion as to why you get a screen asking you to factory reset your phone...

Now that you are in TWRP you need to do a couple of things:

Format data. Wipe -> Format data. It will ask you to type "yes". If you don't do this, you will be prompted to enter a passcode, and will have 30 tries. If that happens, just boot back to TWRP and do this step again.

Wipe cache / dalvik cache

Flash the zip. Choose "Install" and browse to your SD card, and select the h910-10r.zip file. When complete hit the home button.

Now, format data again for good measure....

Once the second format completes you can reboot your phone, and it will be just like you got it fresh off the factory floor, except it will have TWRP.

No part of the H915 firmware is left on the phone. The only things that are not 100% stock v10r firmware are ABOOT (it is the US996 engineering aboot that is unlocked. It also gives the nasty warning on boot), BOOT (it is the 10q kernel with a few patches added by [MENTION=6814590]askermk2000[/MENTION] - KCAL, Adreno idler, etc), and of course RECOVERY (TWRP).

It takes a little while for the first boot -- be patient. It should NOT take longer than 10 minutes. If it does, something went wrong. Boot back to TWRP and try flashing the 10r zip again.

Now that you have a phone with TWRP, feel free to download whatever root method you would like (SuperSU or Magisk).

Old, unsupported ROMs will NOT work with the 10p, 10q or 10r firmware.

If you want to run NATF or WETA (or any old, unsupported ROM that you find floating around these forums) you will need to flash the older 10m firmware: here.

SHA: 1007dedb6e935b0bea1e25f28e39ccb8e69f9694

This is JUST the firmware! It has no kernel, or system. You MUST flash a 10m or earlier ROM or your phone will not boot. If you forget, you can always boot back to TWRP and try again.

The newer kernel should work, but I have not tested it with the older firmware. If it doesn't grab the WW2.0 kernel, it works fine with 10m.

For the latest kernel, please visit [MENTION=6814590]askermk2000[/MENTION]'s thread: here

Do NOT flash firmware for the H918 -- it will brick your phone. Firmware for the other models won't work, but they won't brick your phone.

Feel free to ask away if any of this doesn't make sense. I really hope that isn't the case now :)

Most of all -- have fun. That is what this is supposed to be about!

Again, If you want to restore to stock v10q, you can use this: link.

Serious credits go out to:

[MENTION=4591212]me2151[/MENTION] for DirtySanta. Please visit his original thread and hit the thanks button.

[MENTION=6556954]smitel[/MENTION] for Reversing LG UP and figuring out how unlock lab mode. No partition dl, no root on the new firmware. Again, hit the thanks button.

[MENTION=2630853]Prowler_gr[/MENTION] for patching LG UP for the V20 not to mention finding that thread. I never go into the G5 forums, so I would have never seen it. AGAIN -- hit that thanks button.

[MENTION=5184450]USA-RedDragon[/MENTION] for his Werewolf kernel. I know I sure like not having static on boot. Most people get the ability to hit thanks 6 or 7 times a day -- be sure to use up one more.

[MENTION=6814590]askermk2000[/MENTION] For the new 10q kernel. Dude doesn't even have a V20 and jumped in to help out.

Seriously, these guys are the real devs, and the ones that have left the V20 scene are missed...

-- Brian