There was much confusion among those waiting to unlock and root their Samsung Galaxy S4 when it was announced that AT&T’s variant of Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone comes with its bootloader locked. An Android device can only be rooted once its bootloader has been unlocked, and we know that there is a way to unlock Samsung Galaxy S4 bootloader. On the other hand, Samsung has been trumping up security on its software in a bid to make rooting cumbersome, therefore some methods used to root previous Galaxy smartphones don’t work with the new device. Chainfire, a well known developer, has released modified versions of the SuperSU and CF-Auto-Root tools for Samsung Galaxy S4 i9505 variant, which is the one that’s powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor and sold in the U.S. by AT&T and T-Mobile.
These tools can be used to root the AT&T and T-Mobile Galaxy S4, though caution is advised if you’re a novice at rooting, there are risks involved and if something goes wrong the responsibility will squarely be yours. To apply this root exploit, the S4’s bootloader must be unlocked. The process can only be done on a Windows PC with the latest version of Odin flashing software by Samsung. Chainfire has confirmed that this exploit does not work with international HSPA S4 i9500 models powered by Exynos processors. These modified tools are available for download, here.
Filed in . Read more about Bootloader, Galaxy S4, Odin, Rooting and Samsung.