04 February, 2013

Rooting GT-I9103 on ICS Android 4.0.4

English: Android Market on Samsung Galaxy S.
English: Android Market on Samsung Galaxy S. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
04-Feb-2013

Sometime back in December 2012, after my Samsung Galaxy R phone lapsed on its 1-year warranty, my phone just hanged. If I recall correctly, my 3-year old girl was playing with it, and when I found it, it was already off – kids usually drain out the battery – so I didn’t think that there was a problem at all.

When I tried to turn it on, to check if the battery is dead, it turned on, but it stayed at the Samsung logo – it was stuck there, even after waiting for a considerable amount of time (5 minutes, I would say, is already a long time if we are talking of a normal phone, whatever brand that may be). I did what would be normally done: took out the battery, waited a couple of seconds (although recommended is 15 seconds), then put it back in and pressed the power button on, and voila! Still the same: stuck at the logo.

By then I knew that something else happened. Something has gone wrong.

“That was a rooted phone,” I thought to myself... now what?

I tried to go back to rooting the phone and searching for the same kernel that I used before, which are still in my laptop, did it many times, not once, but many times, and every time, it is a failure.

I then went to search in the web for possible solutions, or at the least, a newer version of the kernel, each time typing the phone model GT-I9103 as the selective search string.

I found several, tried again, failed, tried again, failed... many times... until one came out nice and completed the whole process of installing a kernel.

When the phone was finally working (again), I checked everything, still intact, but I noticed that something else is different – and that was when I found out that the kernel that revived my phone was ICS, Android 4.0. The original OS was Gingerbread, Android 2.3. I said, “What a jump!”

I was almost very happy, except that when I checked through my phone, I found that the root privilege was gone! “Should be easy,” I said, so I went right away to rooting my “upgraded” device. Easier said than done, and no matter what I did, I can’t root my upgraded phone. And after trying out so many times, I gave up. I settled with having just “an upgraded, albeit un-rooted,” phone.

Of course, a lot of those apps that I installed before which required root access don’t work anymore, so while the phone was working, it was not as before, it was not as when I had it rooted, and I have the complete control over it. Blast it!

With unsettled mind over my un-rooted phone, I have inside of me a resolve to look out for other means, other ways, other newer releases, someday, somehow, something that will give me back root access to my phone.

Yesterday, that day came!

In my random search, I chanced upon a page that tells about installing CWMR version xxx.xxx, followed by many other articles. I checked on that one, looked through the procedure, and I found that it is very identical to what I have been referencing before, but just that the version of code it is using is newer (supposedly newer). Basically, I found page for the exact search string I used: “root GT-I9103 ICS”.

Having found that, there is also the article on installing CWMR on GT-I9103.

These 2 I tried, and at first shot, I hit the mark. I rooted the phone running on Ice Cream Sandwich OS. But wait, there is more.

My initial version of ICS is 4.0.2. When I was done with the rooting, and also installing the new version of CMWR, I found that the ICS version is 4.0.4. Wow!

What more could I ask for? After rooting my Galaxy R phone, I also got an upgraded version of ICS.

I’m back!

And here are the pages that I referenced in my latest rooting adventure:
How To Root Galaxy R I9103 on Android 4.0.4 ICS
How To Install CWM Recovery v6.0.1.5 Touch on I9103 Galaxy R

As for this page, beware, not that it doesn’t work, but it is not in English! Bummer! Good thing I backed up my phone and it was a very simple recovery method of restoring the phone.
How To Install Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean on I9103 Galaxy R

Till then!
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