[LG V20 Guides, News, & Discussion] dikkbutt:
hi,

this is a guide for real helpless people, that got a V20 H918 T-Mobile out of the box and have no idea

what to do, to get TWRP and root. and since on this phone its a REAL hard odyssee if youre not a pro,

and you dont want to spend days and weeks to pick up countless small puzzlepieces to finally get all together up and running, i decided to write this guide. im no pro myself, but with countless hours of reading and try and error, misery, headaches and brainpain, i managed to get this thing running all right with working downloadmode,

newest TWRP-version and 20H oreo 8.0

so far, everything seems working good. ill play around with this version and if i encounter some crap, i will edit this guide later. sadly most "newbie-guides" here, are from pros for advanced users with decent knowledge. so when u start from zero, you dont understand half of what is written. thats why i will keep this guide as simple as possible, with some side explanations. its a lot to read and a lot to do, but this way works!

what we have before starting:

a V20 H918 t-mobile 20H oreo 8.0 with bootloader locked. simply a crippled standard phone.

what we will have after this guide:

a V20 H918 t-mobile 20H oreo 8.0 rooted, with unlocked bootloader, working downloadmode,

and newest TWRP-version.

with twrp u can backup your whole system "as it is", means u fukk up your phone, simply go to twrp-recovery, restore your backup and you have your phone up and running 100% as before all went down the drain. simply and easy. just like a new installation of win10, but in 5 minutes. u can flash custom roms, kernels etc., install all kind of stuff, no need to pay for apps anymore, get rid of obnoxious bloatware, just 100% freedom and the full potential with the V20 (which is the last phone of its kind with exchangable battery, which is why i got myself 3pcs of it :D )

sidenote: get yourself some extra protection foils so u can change from time to time.

also get yourself 1 or 2 10000mah powerbatterys from aliexpress (perfine) with protective rubbercase, of course, they dont have the printed-on mah, but at least a considerable amount, so that your phone will last at least 3-6 days. my V10 lastet 11 days normal usage with zerolemon powerbattery. unfortunately, these retards refuse to send to europe, and as far as i know, theyre not producing for LG phones anymore, so aliexpress/perfine is whats left.

the rubbercase gives the phone a superior protection, adds a serious amount of weight and will stick in your hand like glue. it is by far less likely to drop out of your hand like these glass-phones for imbeciles. and if it drops, the rubbercase grants excellent protection. my V10 dropped countless times, still working perfect.

but lets get to the guide now.

at first, we will unlock the bootloader. without it, you wont be able to do anything.

unfortunately, LG produces great phones (with great audio!) but terrorizes the users with their strict anti-root attitude. it seems it gets harder everytime to root and unlock the bootloader. i remember back in the days old samsung devices, had been rooted in no time. this one here cost me about 2 weeks.

on this phone, u simply cant hook it up to the pc, and unlock the bootloader with adb. it will be recognized by the pc, but as soon as u enter fastboot, nothing will happen, no command works.

the solution is a FWUL (forget windows use linux) usb-bootstick, with that u boot your

pc into a custom linux (i think) only here u have full access to your phone via fastboot and can unlock the bootloader in no time. it will not work on win10 !

- first, get rufus, a win10 tool, with that u can create boot-usb-sticks.

https://rufus.akeo.ie/

- then get the linux FWUL image (only 15GB version is still up)

https://androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=214529

- unzip the linux image to your c drive or your desktop.

- start rufus and select your usb-stick (it should be 30gb+ in size)

be carefull not to chose any other drive or stick (it will get erased completely), better double check.

- select the image you just unziped. (i use 7zip for unzipping)

- leave all other options as they are, press start. when dialog-box pops up, chose DD-mode !

- now waste some time, as it takes a long time to create the bootstick (in my case about 30min)

- when the stick is ready, in my case it couldnt be recognized anymore in win10, its just a raw-drive, that cant be

opened. thats allright. dont worry

- now close down all applications running and insert the created bootstick. (at this time u might consider using a

separate laptop, so you can follow this guide here at pc and use the laptop with linux running, thats what i did)

restart your pc, hit F2 or F8 oder DEL or whatever to enter bios.

select the created stick as bootpriority nr1. so that the system will use this stick as

the first bootmedium to boot from.

- u get to a screen with 9 bootoptions to chose from. chose the first one. it should now boot into linux.

when password request pops up, enter: linux

- u reach the "desktop"

connect your LG V20 H918 20H via usb-c to the pc, which has linux running, make sure that

developer options are unlocked, OEM-unlock and USB-debugging is enabled and u chose picture transfer protocol

(PTP) as transfer-protocol (also in developer options). if PTP doesnt work, try media transfer protocol.

watch your V20, at some point it will ask for confirmation of connection , click OK.

in linux, click on the up-arrow in the most downleft corner and chose "terminal emulator", which is

a pendant to windows shell/command-line.

- here you can execute the adb commands.

first, check if your V20 has been recognized by your pc with linux running.

type: adb devices

it should appear a message like:

* daemon started successfully *

LGH9182bfblablabla device

that means, that your V20 has been recognized correctly. now you can reboot it in fastboot mode.

type: adb reboot bootloader

your V20 screen goes black and seconds after, it restarts in bootloader mode ready for unlocking.

you might get a red warning that your warranty is void if bootloader is unlocked. cool.

type: fastboot oem unlock

wait for response, your bootloader is now unlocked.

u can check by typing: fastboot getvar unlocked

it should say: yes.

the bootloader is now unlocked.

now we will replace the standard recovery with twrp on the phone.

this step will be a little confusing and complicate, just follow the steps, and it will work.

since we cant flash twrp with adb, we have to use the linux bootstick again.

but before, we have to downgrade the 20H version to 10P, bcuz the next stepp will not work with 20H !

so you get the following:

DOWNLOAD H91810P KDZ FILE

https://androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=282709

after that, download LGUP (the LG tool for downgrading from 20H to 10P)

and uppercut (dont know what uppercut is for, i just used it instead of running LGUP directly and it worked. its supposed to recognize the phone/driver automatically)

http://downloads.codefi.re/autoprime...sh_Tools/LGUP/

and download the recent LG-usb drivers.

http://tool.cdn.gdms.lge.com/dn/down...=UW00120120425

install LGUP, uppercut and usb-drivers.

connect ur phone to pc in download mode.

turn of phone, press and hold vol.UP button and connect usb cable, small message appears, phone is now in download-mode and waiting.

now run uppercut and hope, that ur phone will be recognized. if not, think about, what kind of restrictions u did to ur system, like OnO-shutup or xpantispy (both great programs to keep win10 from calling home to scum gates) or whatever. in my case, it ONLY worked, after i reset the OnOshutup settings to recommended. so the phone get recognized correctly in LGUP (if not, try laptop or different pc), select upgrade and select the downloaded 10p KDZ file. press start or go, and wait until the procedure is finished.

now your phone is downgraded to 10p.

now we go back to linux, we connect the phone in downloadmode with the pc/laptop where linux is running,

(turn phone off, hold volUP, connect usb-c-cable with linux-pc/laptop, phone will start in download-mode.)

make sure, your laptop/pc has internetaccess.

on the linux-desktop, click on the LG folder, inside, click on LGLAF runningnaked.

a terminal-window opens.

type: git pull

type: git checkout h918-miscwrte

type: ./step1.sh

now we have flashed twrp onto downloadmode. why? i dont know, thats the way it worked for me.

we dont want twrp onto downloadmode, since twrp is a recovery. so the next step is, to flash the newest twrp version for H918 to recovery. at first, we will gather all neccessary downloads, after that, we will flash them one by one. that way, you dont have to get your micro-sd card out of your phone again and again. we put all together on the card, put the card in your phone and we are almost done. for now, have your micro-sdcard connected

with your pc and download the following:

twrp-3.4.0-1-h918.img

from

https://dl.twrp.me/h918/twrp-3.4.0-1-h918.img.html

and put this .img file on micro-sd card.

then download (and put on sd-card):

MAGISK ZIP DOWNLOAD (for root)

https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/...gisk-v16.0.zip

then download original 20H firmware(and put on sd-card)

H918 20H

https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=11410963190603864639

you remember, we have now twrp on downloadmode

for restoring download-mode, download (keep on desktop or c):

H91820h_00_1115.kdz

https://lg-firmwares.com/downloads-file/17076/H91820h_00_1115

then download the firmware extractor:

https://xdaforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3975633&d=1482337024

ok, lets see what we have now:

we have the phone bootloader unlocked and twrp on downloadmode. we can access twrp when we start the phone in downloadmode (hold volUP, and connect usbcable, phone will start now in twrp.)

we dont want twrp on downloadmode, we want twrp as recovery. and we want to restore the original downloadmode. for that we do the following:

unfortunately, the neccessary file for flashing orignal downloadmode is not online anymore, so we have to extract it from the 20H firmware with the firmware extractor (thanks to logical gamer for his guide)

https://xdaforums.com/v20/how-to/guide-h918-restore-laf-partition-t3804728

Extract WindowsLGFirmwareExtract vx.x.x.x. to your desktop, and open it up (preferably in it's own folder).

u might have to install framework 3.5 for it to run.

Select Open across from KDZ/TOT file, and browse to your KDZ (H91820h_00_1115.kdz)

you download previously and double click.

After it loads the kdz check H91820h00.dz, and click Extract KDZ.

Close and re open the program this time Click open across from DZ File in the folder where you placed WindowsLGFirmwareExtract you should see a file called H91820h00.dz Double click to open it.

Check laf_6.bin then click Extract DZ.

put this laf_6.bin on your micro-sdcard. thats your original downloadmode we will flash now.

ok, now we have our micro-sdcard with twrp, magisk, laf_6.bin and H91820h.zip.

put this mirco-sdcard in your phone. start the phone in downloadmode.

it will start in an older twrp-version. in twrp, go to install and select install img

select the twrp 3.4.0.1. img and on the following screen select "recovery"

swipe

this will flash the 3.4.0.1 version of twrp onto recovery.

then go to reboot into recovery. it will now boot into the newly flashed recovery.

then go to wipe, advanced, and select everything EXCEPT micro-sdcard!

this will totally wipe your phone (except twrp), so u can flash the 20H firmware onto a clean phone.

then, go to install, select H91820h.zip. this will flash your original oreo 8.0 firmware.

after that, go to reboot into recovery.

go to install, select magisk. install.

this will root your phone.

after that, reboot into recovery, go to install, select install img, select the laf_6.bin, and select "download"

now the original downloadmode has been restored.

now you can reboot into system, your phone will start as on day1, with new twrp on recovery and root.

i did a complete backup in twrp, so i can get back to a day0 clean install whenever needed. i will do a second backup with twrp with all the stuff installed and working ok and place this on my sd-card. so when things go bad, i always can go back to this state in no time.

congrats, your done. and me too :eek:. gonna get a cold one now.

hope this guide will help someone. in case, just drop a like/thanks/or just a short note.

its a long guide, and im no pro, if i made some mistake pls. tell here and i will correct.

thx to all the pro-guys for helping the helpless.