Hacking Android step by step: unlock the bootloader. Methods to unlock LG Optimus L9 bootloader


Android users often unlock their bootloaders for rooting their devices and installing custom ROMs. Because users who want to complete these tasks should first unlock the bootloader of the device.

Rooting means that you obtain full administrative rights to the system that enables you to modify the system files. Rooting enables users to improve the performance of the Android, speed up, save battery life, remove ads, uninstall the bloatware and so on. With this in consideration, you can customize everything in your Android.

Flashing a custom ROM provides your more features excluding the default system. After flashing a custom ROM you will find that it is easy to install the latest and greatest OS version that is compatible with your device without waiting.

Before Unlocking the Bootloader of LG Phones

  • Device is powered on.
  • Battery level should be at least 50%
  • USB data cable (the original one is recommended)

How to Unlock the Bootloader on LG Phones

Step 1: Backup important data

The unlocking process will sweep of all the data of Android. So it is important to backup your precious data. Backup everything you want to keep, then continue to the next step.

Step 2: Free Download KingoRoot

KingoRoot is the best and easiest root tool for free. Here KingoRoot is not used for rooting but an alternative to and USB driver. The KingoRoot includes the Android SDK and will download the LG USB driver automatically once connected to the PC.

Step 3: Get an Unlock Key.


Step 4: Unlock your bootloader of your Android device.

Here comes to perform the unlocking process. If you haven"t interrupted the connection and your phone still in the fastboot mode (If your device isn"t in the fastboot, then repeat the step 2 or just hold the "Volume Down" and "Power" button for 10 seconds before releasing in order to make the device being in the fastboot mode.

  1. Enter fastboot flash unlock unlock.bin in DOS command window. “unlock.bin” is the bootloader unlock key you received in the email.
  2. Reboot your device by running command fastboot reboot or using the "Volume" buttons to reboot.

The device will show a message at boot stating that your bootloader is unlocked. With an unlocked bootloader you will be allowed to, or.

KingoRoot on Windows

KingoRoot Android on Windows has the highest success rate. It supports almost any Android device and version.

In this step-by-step article, you will learn how to unlock the LG bootloader in order to later install root rights, as well as flash custom firmware.

Many manufacturers of Android devices, including LG, have made it a rule to block the bootloader. For you and me, this means one more additional step towards obtaining root rights and installing Recovery ( TWRP or CWM) with custom firmware.

This article was specially prepared to do everything correctly and quickly!

Necessary tools and conditions

  1. Windows computer
  2. USB cable (no damage, preferably original)
  3. LG drivers installed on your computer
  4. Download and install the program (to simplify the procedure)
  5. Charged LG device
  6. Enable “USB Debugging” in the Developer Options menu and enable “ OEM Unlock«

Instructions on how to unlock Bootloader LG

All unlocking instructions can be described in several points:

  • Registration with LG
  • Unlock Bootloader

Now let's look at each of them in detail.

Registration with LG

1. To register with LG, follow this link.

2. Select " Countries other than Korea«

3. We agree to license agreements:

4. Fill in your registration information and click “ Save»:


5. Registration is completed.

Obtaining a custom LG bootloader code

1. In order to get an individual LG bootloader code, run the Adb Run program

2. Reboot LG into Bootloader mode; to do this, go to the menu in the program Manual Command -> Unlock Bootloader LG -> Reboot Bootloader

(bootloader) CE78B979A78D6B613ET518F37A05E019 (bootloader) Z23180BH448261DHFJ5184E8IF8789B0

4. Remove everything (bootloader) and move everything to one line

5. We move on to the stage of obtaining the bootloader unlock code.

Getting the bootloader unlock code

1. Go to LG website to receive the unlock file.

2. Fill in the data:

  • Name - Name
  • E-mail - your email
  • Phone - model number
  • Imei - write the Imei of the device, to find it out, dial in the dialer *#06#
  • Device ID - the code you received in Adb Run

3. Click on the button Confirm

4. Then go to the email address you specified and download the file unlock.bin

5. Let's move on to the Bootloader unlocking stage

Unlock Bootloader

1. Downloaded file unlock.bin copy

2. In the Adb Run program, select Firmware unlcok.bin (Bootloader Unlcok)

3. Paste the file into the explorer window that opens unlcok.bin, close and continue in Adb Run.

4. After a couple of seconds, Bootloader will be unlocked.



Hello friends. Today, we can say, a spontaneous post happened, what it will be about, you could already guess from the title. The thing is that just today a parcel arrived from the USA, and I became the owner of a brand new Google LG Nexus 4. And now I have two Nexuses at once - Samsung Galaxy Nexus and LG Nexus 4 - maybe I’ll even write a comparison review, if you're interested, but that's not what we're talking about today.
Yes, who cares, and I’m sure that many – the issue price is 12k rubles with delivery! But again, that’s not what I’m talking about...

Yes, Pure Android 4 is wonderful in itself - convenient, fast and almost perfect. Please note that I am talking specifically about the android that is installed in Nexus Google phones, and not all other phones (htc, Samsung, sony, etc.), because... they have been seriously reworked and changed, unfortunately, not for the better. So what could be better than almost perfect firmware? Improved custom firmware, of course!

So today I turned on the phone for the first time just to make sure it worked at all. When I was convinced of this, I turned it off and started “dancing with a tambourine.” Hot on the heels, I’ll tell you how to unlock Bootloader on Nexus 4, install recovery and flash any firmware.

In fact, all these dances with a tambourine are not such dances and even almost not with a tambourine =) I, as an already experienced user, felt confident, did not worry and did not even make any backups. As it turned out, all the procedures described below are completely identical to the procedures that I did a year ago on the Galaxy Nexus. Everything will be simple, I promise!

First you need to prepare a little and download the necessary drivers:
Download the drivers usb_driver.rar - they will be useful for connecting the device in bootloader mode to our PC. We also download the adb.rar archive - it contains Fastboot and ADB files.

Unpack the Fastboot and ADB archive to the root of drive C, it should look like C:\adb.
We also unpack the drivers to the root of drive C, it will turn out to be C:\usb_driver.

Now into battle!

Installing drivers and unlocking Bootloader in LG Nexus 4

First you need to unlock Bootloader, without this nothing can be done.

There are various solutions and even programs that allow you to unlock, get root and install recovery in one click, but I somehow don’t trust this approach, because the procedure is delicate. Although I still tried to use the NEXUS 4 TOOLKIT 1.3 program today, but, as it turned out, you can only download the basic version, and the update is available only after payment, and without the update the choice of android 4.2.2 support is not available. In short - not our option!

Three simple steps and no show-offs:


It's simple, right?

Installing custom recovery on LG Nexus 4

Now we need to install recovery, without which we simply will not be able to flash firmware, kernels and any tweaks and mods.

For recovery, I recommend TWRP Team Win Recovery Project. You can view the description and features on XDA in the official topic for NEXUS 4, there is always the current version there. At the time of writing this post, the newest version is 2.4.4.0. Here is a convenient direct download link. Have you downloaded it? Great, let's move on.

We have a file openrecovery-twrp-2.4.4.0-mako.img. If you put it in the c:\adb folder and rename it twrp.img it will be easier in the next step.


Well, the bootloader is unlocked, recovery is installed. The simplest thing left is to install new firmware. By the way, we don’t need to get root if we are going to install custom firmware, root will already be there by default.

Installing custom firmware on LG Nexus 4

For almost a year of using my previous Samsung Galaxy Nexus, I tried a whole bunch of different firmware, often reflashed it, and conducted all sorts of experiments. And you know, one day I found the ideal firmware, the firmware of my dreams - this is ParanoidAndroid. I simply cannot recommend anything else other than this firmware. But, one way or another, the choice is yours; the procedure for installing different firmware is identical.

This is what your Nexus 4 might look like after installing ParanoidAndroid:

Here is a video review of the same firmware, but for those who have not personally used ParanoidAndroid, little will be clear:

So, we have decided on the firmware, we need to download it. Official topic for firmware developers, there is also a description, links and new versions. You can download the firmware itself in the mako section on goo.im, and you will also need to download Google Apps in the corresponding section on goo.im.

We downloaded the firmware and gapps, now we need to somehow upload them to the phone. If the phone is normally visible in the explorer, then skip the block of text below; if you can’t get into the phone’s memory through the explorer, then read.

A small snag may arise here, but only if you do not read this post - because all the snags are resolved for me, and I will definitely write about it!

I’m sitting and connecting the phone via USB using a cable, but it’s charging, but in the explorer I can’t see it as a folder to put our archives there for the firmware. If you have the same story, then here is the solution!

I don’t know why, but Windows decided to install ADB drivers when the phone was turned on (this does not mean fastboot, but the running android system). Maybe I did something wrong somehow, but the fact is the fact - the phone folder is not visible in Explorer. I thought that some drivers were missing, I Googled for a long time, but found nothing. I decided to use the harsh method: We go to the device manager, we see “Android device something like ADB” - just right-click on it and select Delete. We disconnect the phone and immediately connect it back - Windows should re-detect the device and install the correct drivers on it. This worked for me and the required Nexus 4 folder appeared in Explorer!

Select the folder Nexus 4 / Internal memory / Download and drop the archives there, in my case it’s pa_mako-3.10-11MAR2013-131748.zip and pa_gapps-full-4.2-20130308.zip. In your case, these will be newer versions; it’s not at all difficult to understand the markings.

When all the archives are downloaded, disconnect the phone from the computer and turn it off. We need to get into recovery mode again, to do this we hold down Volume Down + Power until fastboot turns on, where we use the volume buttons to select Recovery mode and press Power.

If it suddenly happened that you didn’t see the main screen of TWRP (it’s very easy to identify, there will be no doubt about it), but you saw an android lying on its back with a red triangle, then there is a way out, but what would you do without it?

To do this, hold down the Power button until the phone turns off. We boot into fastboot again, connect the phone via USB and repeat the recovery installation script. When the recovery is installed, do not reboot, but use the volume buttons to find the Recovery mode item and select it with the power button. Now TWRP will definitely start, which means we follow the instructions below.

We will see the main screen of TWRP, click on the top right Wipe button, and then Factory Reset - this will delete all data on the phone!

After a complete reset, you need to return to the previous screen and click on the upper left Install button. On the screen that opens, select Download from the list of folders, and then first click on the pa_mako firmware file, then Add More Zips and immediately select the pa_gapps file and finally do Swipe to Confirm Flash. Now both the firmware and Google Apps applications will be flashed immediately, about a minute of waiting and we should see the inscription Successful. It is very important to clear all caches; to do this, select the Wipe cache/dalvik button. Everything is ready - click Reboot System.

Now the system will boot, but with the ParanoidAndroid firmware. After a long download, we find ourselves in the initial phone setup menu, where you need to select a language, specify an account, etc.

Actually that's all! Good luck to you friends. If you have any questions or suggestions about the firmware process or about ParanoidAndroid, please write in the comments.

Note: How to access the developer menu on any firmware.

Open the settings, select the “About phone” item at the very bottom, scroll the screen to the “Build Number” item, it will say JDQ39, which corresponds to android version 4.2.2, you may have something else written, it doesn’t matter. Press this line 7 times in a row. As a result, the message “You have become a developer!” should appear. It turns out how easy it is to become a developer for androind =))) We return back to the settings menu, we see a new item “For Developers”.

UPD: If suddenly the phone turns into a “brick” - what should you do?

You never know what happens... Like today, for example, a colleague bought himself the same Nexus 4 and gave it to me so that I could install custom firmware. “No problem,” I said and went to follow my own instructions written above. A strange thing happened - all the data (zip file of the firmware image, for example), which I uploaded to the internal drive for subsequent firmware after the reset, they were deleted, self-destructed for some unknown reason.

In short, the phone turned into a brick, i.e. It won’t turn on, but something needs to be done. Therefore, the easiest way is to download Factory Image to your phone, i.e. factory image so that the phone looks like what you saw when you first opened the package. And here are the instructions:

  1. It is assumed that you have already installed the drivers and the phone connects to the computer when it is in fastboot mode. And also the bootloader is unlocked. In short, all the steps under the heading “Installing drivers and unlocking” have been completed.
  2. Now download the official image of the phone from here https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#occam At the moment, the current version is 4.3 (JWR66V), click Link opposite and download.
  3. We downloaded the archive occam-jwr66v-factory-08d2b697.tgz, inside it is another archive occam-jwr66v-factory-08d2b697.tar, and inside there are several files and another archive image-occam-jwr66v.zip - this is what we need needed, take and transfer image-occam-jwr66v.zip to the folder C:\adb
  4. Open the command line and write:
    cd c:\adb press Enter;
    fastboot erase boot press Enter;
    fastboot erase cache press Enter;
    fastboot erase system press Enter;
    fastboot erase userdata press Enter;
    fastboot reboot-bootloader press Enter;
    fastboot -w update image-occam-jwr66v.zip press Enter and wait.
    After the last operation, the phone should reboot itself and turn on.
  5. Now your phone is like new :) And you can repeat what didn’t work. Namely, upload zip archives to the phone’s memory and try to flash them again. By the way, we didn’t touch recovery during the recovery process, so you still have TWRP, which means turn off the phone, press Volume Down + Power, select recovery and go!

Well, now that’s all for sure!

See you later, friends. And I’m sorry that I stopped writing about SEO often, I promise to improve in the near future.

Best regards, Alexander Alaev

Despite the fact that the LG smartphone L9 appeared last year and has already lost the right to be called a flagship, its technical characteristics smoothly moved the device into the middle segment, and the cheaper price due to the release of the new version of the Nine will pleasantly please buyers. There’s nothing bad to say about the device’s hardware; the 4.7-inch IPS screen and gigabyte of RAM are especially pleasing. The device will remain relevant for at least another year and will most likely successfully cope with the demands of the upcoming fifth version of the Android OS. The build quality is excellent and the hardware components are excellent, but there are obvious problems with long-term operation - with moderate use, the phone requires feeding it in the late afternoon. If we compare the same indicator with the monster highscreen boost, then 4000 milliamps still has a more pleasant effect on operating time. The retired flagship has half the battery capacity, so you'll have to curb your appetites and keep the charger nearby. During the test, the phone never showed an error message, calmly survived the massive attack by games and applications, all the hits of the modern mobile gaming industry worked without noticeable failures in FPS. Of course, after Full HD screens the picture seems a little pale, but applications that are monstrous in cache size do not begin to thoughtfully search for the meaning of their existence during startup.

Today we will install CWM on nine and rid the bootloader of the ridiculous habit of prohibiting any modification of the smartphone. Let us clarify right away - all of the following leads to voiding the warranty. If you bought a smartphone recently and are not sure that it will live to the end of its warranty without incident, feel free to skip the article. But new roads open to the brave, so let’s begin. Unlike the earlier versions of mockery of this smartphone, inquisitive minds from the far corner of the United States have found an easier way to get what they want, both a first-level novice shaman and a seasoned level 80 flasher can handle it. So, what do we need to successfully complete the event? First of all, drivers for your smartphone. They can be installed through the proprietary program LG MOBILE SUPPORT TOOL ( http://www.lg.com/us/support-mobile/lg-LGP769BK). Moreover, it is highly advisable to install drivers without the checkbox installed in USB debugging (in the settings for developers), since for some reason this label can lead to strange problems in identifying the phone.

Having installed them, restart the computer, and while it slowly and smoothly completes its processes, check the boxes for debugging and safe sources (“security” and “for developers”). Now everything is ready for dancing with a tambourine. First, download the archive with adb files, useful for flashing ( http://yadi.sk/d/UP_O3L-m4WOJm) and unzip it to drive C, in the Android folder (C/Android). Then open the submenu with the right mouse button while in this folder. Select “open command line here” (the item may have a different name). Of course, from the administrator. In the black-black terminal window, visibly showing how the OS interface has changed since the days of DOS, copy this adb reboot oem-unlock. The phone will restart in the desired mode and suspiciously ask you whether you need an unlock or, better yet, not. To convince him otherwise, press the volume rocker up and wait for the phone to react. It will result in a restart in fastboot mode. While the phone is doing this, download the recovery file ( http://yadi.sk/d/bYknVHkG5XCWi). Move it to the same Android folder, in the command line type fastbootflashrecoveryrecovery-clockwork-6.0.2.9-p760.img. This team will do us a favor by giving us a magic kick to the phone software for its subsequent customization. Everything is ready, the smartphone has received a more functional recovery and the ability to install third-party firmware.

As you already know, a comprehensive series of articles about modifying the LG G4 with a file has started on keddr. I immediately emphasize that the device as a whole is excellent and has virtually no real shortcomings. We talked about this in full. This series of articles is specifically for geeks; it talks about nuances that ordinary users will never touch. In we have already touched upon seemingly all possible similar disadvantages of the gadget. But, as it turned out, there is another nuance. Pitfalls, common to all versions of the device, covered the most important one like the tip of an iceberg. Namely, differences in regional modifications. More details - under the cut.

The situation is quite non-trivial. Under the sonorous name LG G4 for different countries and continents hides a whole scattering of variations on the theme of the newly-made flagship. The main differences lie in the supported communication standards and the number of supported SIM cards. It seems like nothing like that, many models are sold according to the same scheme. But we are interested in one point.

Ukraine and some Asian countries officially received the model with the 818p index. One of the dual-SIM modifications. It would seem, what's bad here? Vice versa! A flagship gadget with two SIM cards, with an eye on today's economy, is the optimal solution for both ordinary users and geeks. But alas, just for geeks at the moment this index sounds like a death sentence...

Background

Historically, LG, unlike some competitors, has traditionally not sought to give customers the official ability to unlock the bootloader of their devices. The only exceptions are two Nexus in its design. And that’s only because of cooperation with Google and positioning of devices as tools for developers.

The trend/tradition continued up to and including G3. And the XDA community had no choice but to create its own unlocking tools.

Without this operation, unfortunately, installing a custom recovery, as well as obtaining root rights, is simply impossible. Therefore, actually unlocking the bootloader becomes a kind of cornerstone for the further use of G4 by geeks and mod developers.

Starting with G4, the situation was supposed to officially change dramatically for the better. For the first time, LG has officially provided the opportunity for developers to unlock the ill-fated bootloader, sacrificing the warranty. Everything is fair. This is what Sony, HTC and even Samsung do. Hooray? Not so!

Welcome to real world

To date, LG has kept its promise. However, there is one “but”! Having launched a large number of regional variations on the G4 theme, the company! And this is LG G4 LGH815 EU. The so-called “international” version is sold in some European countries. For the rest of the globe, there is a promise that other versions will certainly be added, although no time frame has been announced.

This state of affairs, despite the fact that G4 has been on the market for several months, has severely stalled the development of unofficial methods/hacks for unlocking. What for? After all, LG promised an official opportunity! The only thread on XDA dedicated to unofficial unlocking, you can. And it doesn't give any results. Instead, it actively discusses semi-conspiratorial theories about the commercialization of all the endeavors of the hacker caste on XDA. It's funny, in some ways even educational, but it doesn't help matters at all.

It should be noted that there are no objective obstacles to the official unlocking of regional versions other than the “selected” 815. Dual SIM functionality and differences in communication standards are not problem areas. The situation is maintained exclusively artificially.

A few words about support

Not wanting to rely on rumors and speculation in my articles, I decided to contact LG’s official client support for clarification and calendar dates for the appearance of the promised ability to unlock the 818p version. After all, it is this option, official for the Ukrainian market, that is the hero of this series of articles. Here's what came out of it:

The official support service writes that unlocking the bootloader requires root rights in Android. It also indicates that LG does not provide assistance to customers in this matter. But we already know that, firstly, the presence of SuperSU in the system does not in any way affect the ability to unlock the bootloader in fastboot service mode. Secondly, LG officially helps with unlocking. Even if (temporarily) only for selected owners of the 815 EU.

Bottom line

The company's engineers have released a truly magnificent gadget from a hardware point of view. Yes, with the software component, not everything is so smooth, although it is better than the market average. In addition to the problems already known to us, there are some minor bugs. But all this is simply corrected by the geek community represented by xda. He just needs to stay out of the way. Splitting one model into many regional versions makes the situation worse, but that should change once the global company launches support for other versions. In the meantime, the activity of custom firmware developers remains low, which is logical.

It is important to understand, no matter how cool a smartphone is, most geeks are interested in one thing - global community support. LG made a good move by announcing the plans, but now they need to follow through with it in full. It is almost impossible to regain the interest of such an audience after the fact. The market is too dynamic. Oneplus Two has been announced and there are a ton of other variants on the way. And geeks, in turn, do not make situational, spontaneous purchases. They choose thoughtfully.

Light at the end of the tunnel

However, there are still a lot of fans left in the LG camp from the days of Nexus 4 and 5. At the moment, as part of informal communication with a certain closed group of developers, I can say with a high degree of probability that within the next two weeks the world will see a universal solution for unlocking the bootloader. Not without the help (albeit of a tester in the first place) from your humble servant. Unofficial, of course.

In addition to the group mentioned above, there are also a small number of regional communities that compensate for their small numbers with persistence and effectiveness and have decided to take a different path. They advocate getting root rights without unlocking. And today there are first successes. The method mentioned in the thread has every chance of being universal. But it is not possible to accurately answer this question without mass testing.

Veterans of the LG community on XDA, the Codefire team, recently rolled out their universal method for getting root without unlocking the bootloader. We will also consider it as part of the cycle.

At the moment, I urge all readers interested in further improving their LG G4 to disable automatic updates (OTA). Otherwise, you risk facing completely unnecessary problems.

Also, in addition to unofficial works, there is also a petition created by the XDA community, which can be signed by anyone interested in eliminating the ridiculous limitation. The large number of signatories will certainly play a role and will really help speed up the process. Monitor the current situation with official unlocking. I undertake to inform you promptly about changes in the situation and further developments. There are no hopeless situations. And fortunately, G4 is too interesting and cool for the XDA community to just give up. See you later:).

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.


2024 gtavrl.ru.