[Verizon LG G3] TheHierophant:
Well that was an adventure. I inadvertently ended up with an upgrade to VS9854CA over-the-air which predictably killed my root and wiped my setup. Life sucked, but livable until the screen started doing the flashy fade to back lockup. Now I've got to do something - I really don't want a new phone, I like my LG G3 even if the carrier is basically Evil Corp.

First things first: I had to fix the screen. I noted that the newer ROM was making the phone hotter. That's a side effect of what is truly an improvement in responsiveness from my old old version. I also noted that it seemed to get better if I manipulated the covers. Loose part somewhere? Quick search on the forums turned up this thread: "[GUIDE] Fix Display Flickering, Overheat and Constant Rebooting" with thanks to [MENTION=5905317]IngJulian_RVLX[/MENTION]. Reading it showed a basic problem to be sure but wasn't an entire fix. It did give me the idea what was needed though. So I disassembled the phone and re-flowed the main chips with a heat gun (NOT a hair dryer - not hot enough, focused enough, and way too much airflow, and DEFINITELY NOT a toaster oven - this will fry other components), then cleaned the board. Using silicon pad I placed one on the top of the main chip on the "front" (faces the display when assembled and has the big shield on it), then another piece over that one the length of the metal shield. Then I put another piece of silicon pad on the chip on the back side under the smaller metal shield. Reassemble the phone. Power up. Okay, we're working again without the annoying flashy fading screen.

So now the problem is getting root and TWRP back. Again the search: "Root for LG G3 VS985 Android 6.0 47A". Thanks to [MENTION=4795150]annoyingduck[/MENTION] and [MENTION=2560614]roirraW "edor" ehT[/MENTION]. I found a 10B .tot file and flashed that successfully. Only one big problem - adb would not find the phone! Turns out the identifier pulled in a G3 device and not the VS985 device for which I had a debug stack. Not to worry, stump is an apk so I should be able to upload right? Nope, it's offline. Well the suggested alternative, kingroot.net, exists try that. Yup that worked - I'm now rooted and victimized by all the bloatware kingroot brings with it.

Rather than debloat the kingroot I figured it does no harm in the moment. So let's get TWRP back so I at least have a recovery. Of course the CodeFire team has what I need and TWRP is installable as an app now. The first time I rooted it was a manual load with dd - progress! Just search the Play Store for TWRP, load and go. Nice work guys!!!

Okay so how to get up to the latest version possible and still keep root? Because, hey as long as I'm in here why not? Searching I find this: "[Guide] [VS985] Flash Back To Stock - KDZ Method". Yup, once more [MENTION=4795150]annoyingduck[/MENTION] to the rescue - a repository of .KDZ files along with more helpful experience. I managed to find this thread as well: "[TOOL] KDZ and TOT Extractor" with thanks to [MENTION=2452553]bullghost[/MENTION]. Still not quite what I need yet. I found "VS985 47A - Stock Flashable Firmware" with thanks to [MENTION=2941286]xdabbeb[/MENTION]. That's the ticket! So flashed that (and the bootstack) and now I'm at least a marshmallow 6.0 version. Lost root, but kingroot was able to root (and bloat).

Now to get rid of kingroot and put on superSU instead. Search found this: "How to Remove/Replace Kingroot (KingUser) with SuperSu". There, that's better! After a reboot I have to manually remove the last vestiges of kingroot but SuperSU is happily running and the bloatware is gone. Now I can restore the phone to it's prior level of function. Play Store restored my apps, I did have to reconfigure my home screens, but I'm now back in business. What's more I've got an upgrade that I like.

Whoops! An OTA update flashes on my screen!!! NO!!!!! Okay, calm down. This took several searches to find so basically here's what I needed to do:

1. Delete the files in the /cache/fota directory - this allowed the OTA to fail without updating my phone.

2. Find the "System updates" in the application manager - there are two of them and you have to select 'system' in the drop down to see them. One of them can be disabled the other cannot.

3. Find /system/app/FOTA and rename the LGFOTA.apk file to LGFOTA.apk.bak

No, using hiddenmenu.apk or the ##PROGRAM985 or any other method does not work. Apparently Evil Corp. doesn't pay attention to this anymore and that's why I got the original update that killed me. Thanks to this post for the tips: "[PSA] NO OTAs!! | Keep Root/Unlock | How-To: Block OTA, DL SW/FW, Update Manually" and h/t to [MENTION=2684188]autoprime[/MENTION].

So now I've got some work to do, because there's some fun to be had. I've managed to get the VS985CA .KDZ and extracted it. I've got the .img files ready. Now I just have to add su and busybox to the system image under linux and then I can flash these files to the phone using FlashFire (again CodeFire team - what can I say, you guys rock). Time to make the chimichungas! :D

Moral of the story here is this:

I've been playing around with android phones and root since my HTC Incredible. Xda-Developers has always been a source of good information but it only works if you use it. I found the original hiddenmenu.apk and it was the forums that gave me the invocation command to bring it up - somewhere in the original VS985 root thread I'm there contributing that information. Do the searches and you can find the answers you need without being annoying. Also give it time - these people I've mentioned throughout this post (along with many more) are working as fast AND as carefully as they can to bring the best solutions possible to problems. But you do have to do your part, if you aren't going to put the time in to learn at least the basics by reading the forums than this isn't your rodeo. I'm no expert but I do know how to think, experiment, and I have some background in linux and have some familiarity with android application development so I could understand something of what this device is doing and how it's built. If you lack that and you're going to play here my best advice is to have a backup phone - 'cause you're going to brick yours a few times before you learn that these basics are required, even if you're not going to be a "cool ROM" developer. That's the dues you pay to play. The experienced folks will realize my mistakes made, as I do, in this post. That's because they are the experts and I am not. Did I get where I wanted to get? Yes. Was it elegant? No. But having paid the dues I never needed to ask. Just admit to myself that I needed to get smarter and dug in. Besides, it was kinda nice not to be bugged by the phone for a day. :cool: