The LG-G4 Lounge

Hiya guys,

I've been back from vacation for a few weeks, and we've been hard at work on root/unlock ever since.
Don't worry, we haven't run off with the devices you guys provided for us.

Currently, we've found a few exploits that lead to root - the trouble is finding the simplest one that works across all variants and is the most 'trivial' in terms of patchability.
The reasoning for that is we'd rather save the easy roots for the first few OTAs, as they'll get patched nearly immediately, and keep the more complex ones for later when LG slows down their OTA cycle.

All of our dev phones have root currently, so we're able to play around with root ideas without any issues.

Regarding bootloader unlock, we're still on track for a global unlock for all G4 devices. That's still the plan, no changes there.

Our current task is figuring out how to unbrick the phone should our exploit fail and land the phone in QHSUSB mode. If anyone has the emmc programmer files from LG for this, please PM me or autoprime.
Other than that, I might need to solder some magnet wire to the EMMC pins for recovery in case we brick in the process of trying the unlock.

Anyway, I'll try to answer questions as much as I can, but remember I have to be vague so LG (who's undoubtedly reading these forums) doesn't get any ideas and send over a forced OTA to patch something before we even release it... that'd be a giant bummer.

Thanks!

biff6789 said:

I sort of understand where you're coming from as the attitudes you describe are certainly found sometimes here on XDA, but I don't think the guy asking above sounded entitled or demanding. It's been several weeks since there's been a single word on any progress and so people are curious about where the devs are at. All of jcase's recent activity and tweets are about his HTC unlock, so has he just moved on? And we've heard nothing from the other team working on an unlock and a lot just want to know if they're even still working on it. Have they tried to find root and failed so they moved on and gave up? Are they still actively looking? Have they found something that might work for public release and they're just testing it out? People just want to know and so they asked, no harm done.

I'm buying a new phone this week. I'm about to sink $600 into something which is a lot of money and root is a big factor of that decision. Asking for a simple update on whether or not devs are even still working on it is not out of line. Yes XDA is has its share of entitled and rude users, but just as worse are those who snuff out and stifle any conversation whatsoever any time it is brought up in any thread. Forums only survive when respectful conversation is allowed to occur.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I don't generally give status updates, I have not stopped looking at the G4.

DON'T OTA

going to post this once... please spread the word into the other G4 subforums and any related posts anywhere.

I'm not sure if this is cause for alarm... but just putting the warning out there... based on viewing the latest USCC and T-Mobile files... these recent OTAs for USA carriers seem to be implementing "antirollback" which means you can never "go back" to a lesser version. To simplify things... fresh out of the box all of your phones were at "0" and now after the OTA they're at "1". Both the TMO and USCC KDZ file's are based on the OTA which is a "1" so there's no concern of flashing an older KDZ by mistake... at least for now. Not sure what will happen with future updates.

Can only confirm this on the TMO H811 and USCC US991... Still waiting on Sprint users to grab the OTA URL or zip name for me so I can inspect that... but I suspect all of the recent OTAs from AT&T, Sprint and Verizon also used the "1" update. The European/Asian/Etc variants still seem to be using the "0" version.. even after the recent updates. [Not every OTA will bump up the "version"]

I can't say what this means as a whole just yet... Maybe nothing at all. But perhaps for those who wish to stay at that fresh "0" for now... try your best to avoid the OTA update. I know the intl phones can disable updates but this option has been removed in USA variants. There are talks of an app that allows you to disable apks on your phone... I haven't used it myself but perhaps for those who want to maybe block the OTA app (LGDMSClient.apk)... worth checking out. This is said app: http://xdaforums.com/android/software/debloater-remove-carrier-bloat-t2998294
apks to attempt to disable:
/system/priv-app/LGDMSClient/LGDMSClient.apk (not in all phones)
/system/priv-apps/LGUpdateCenter/LGUpdateCenter.apk

Again.. I don't really know what any of this means just yet... just reporting what I do know. Spread the word.
And for those who were forced to OTA.. or saying this post has come too late.. everyone knows to never ever OTA.. and the app to disable OTA has been around for a bit now. I'm sorry but..

Cross fingers and hope I'm wrong :fingers-crossed:

Phones with "v1" status confirmed:
H811 10H
LS991 ZV5
US991 10C
VS986 11A

Here's another thread with more info on potentially blocking the OTA without root http://xdaforums.com/g4/help/how-to-prevent-updates-g4-t3148650/

teh r00t http://xdaforums.com/g4/orig-development/root-tmo-vzw-intl-variants-soon-root-lg-t3164765/

thecubed said:

Hiya guys,

I've been back from vacation for a few weeks, and we've been hard at work on root/unlock ever since.
Don't worry, we haven't run off with the devices you guys provided for us.

Currently, we've found a few exploits that lead to root - the trouble is finding the simplest one that works across all variants and is the most 'trivial' in terms of patchability.
The reasoning for that is we'd rather save the easy roots for the first few OTAs, as they'll get patched nearly immediately, and keep the more complex ones for later when LG slows down their OTA cycle.

All of our dev phones have root currently, so we're able to play around with root ideas without any issues.

Regarding bootloader unlock, we're still on track for a global unlock for all G4 devices. That's still the plan, no changes there.

Our current task is figuring out how to unbrick the phone should our exploit fail and land the phone in QHSUSB mode. If anyone has the emmc programmer files from LG for this, please PM me or autoprime.
Other than that, I might need to solder some magnet wire to the EMMC pins for recovery in case we brick in the process of trying the unlock.

Anyway, I'll try to answer questions as much as I can, but remember I have to be vague so LG (who's undoubtedly reading these forums) doesn't get any ideas and send over a forced OTA to patch something before we even release it... that'd be a giant bummer.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Hope you had a fantastic vacation and I think I speak for everyone here on a big THANK YOU on this update. It's something we needed because some people are tearing each other apart like starved wolves here lol

Continue to do your thing (and @autoprime) and (the majority) of us will still wait patiently

Thanks and have a great day!