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Samsung generally releases two versions of their Galaxy S8/S8+, one running on its homegrown Exynos chips and the other running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips. The Exynos version ends up being sold all over the world whereas the United States and a few other markets get the Snapdragon version.
Until a few years ago, the Exynos version of the Samsung Galaxy was considered to be less developer-friendly and received lesser attention than its Snapdragon counterpart. But those days are gone and the Exynos variants of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ can be unlocked and rooted. The Snapdragon version, on the other hand, is still struggling to get root access.
Just recently though, users of the US Snapdragon variant had something to rejoice for. Developers were able to mount the system partition as ‘read’ and ‘write’ for the first time, and soon after, they managed to install SuperSU and root the device.
This breakthrough came along last week but the actual method to root the phone was still a mystery. Now we have a step by step tutorial to root the phone, yet it is not as simple as rooting other phones. But it shouldn’t be much of a trouble if you are familiar with rooting a phone. This tutorial by elliwigy focuses on the Galaxy S8+ (SM-G955U and G955U1), but will also work on the Galaxy S8 (SM-G950U and G950U1).
Must Read: Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus receive August security patch
Warnings!
There are few downsides of rooting the Snapdragon version S8 and here they are,
- The bootloader will still be locked though and there currently is no way to unlock it. This means that Magisk, SUHide, Systemless Root and anything that modified the boot.img will not work.
- Hence if you do decide to root using this method, you won’t be able to play Pokemon GO, watch Netflix on your phone, make payments using Android Pay or use Snapchat.
What Is Required
- ADB and Fastboot must already be setup and installed on your PC.
- The process below will wipe out your entire data so make sure you have all important data backed up safely.
- Your phone must be charged enough so as to not run out of juice during the process. Preferably the battery should be at least over 50%.
- You’ll also need Samsung USB drivers installed on your PC.
Also, download the below packages and follow the instructions given below to proceed further.
Downloads
Steps To Root Snapdragon Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ (US Variants)
Step 1: Download the S8 Plus SAMPWND firmware package and the SAMPWND systemroot zip to your PC.
Step 2: Extract the contents of the systemroot zip to your adb installation directory.
Step 3: Extract the S8 Plus firmware package zip anywhere you prefer on your PC.
Step 4: Now download and launch Comsey ODIN and start selecting the firmware files you just extracted (BL goes in BL, AP in AP, CP in CP and CSC in CSC).
Step 5: Under the Options section in the ODIN window, select the following options only – Auto Reboot, Re-Partition, F. Reset Time, Nand Erase All and Bootloader Update.
Step 6: Put your phone in Download mode and connect it to the PC. To boot into download mode first power off your phone. Then press and hold the Bixby and volume down buttons, and press the power button. You should instantly see a blue screen, press volume up to continue to download mode.
Step 7: You’ll see your phone connected in ODIN. Hit the Start button on ODIN and let the process complete. When it does, your phone will reboot.
Step 8: It is possible that your phone goes into Download mode or recovery mode upon reboot instead. This is an expected behavior, so just simply press and hold the power button for long enough and it will reboot to system.
Step 9: When your phone comes back up, go through the setup wizard and sign-in using your Google account.
Step 10: Turn on USB debugging and connect your phone to the PC again with a USB cable.
Step 11: Considering you’ve already extracted the systemroot zip to your adb installation folder, open a command prompt window in the folder. To do this, just go to your adb installation folder, type cmd in the address bar and hit enter.
Step 12: To make sure your device is properly connected, enter the command given below in the adb window and hit enter. If you see a serial number, it means your device is connected.
adb devices
Step 13: Issue the following adb commands one by one.
adb push systemroot /data/local/tmp adb shell chmod -R 0777 /data/local/tmp adb shell setsid su
Step 14: If the last command from above worked for you, you’ll not be seeing dream2qlte, $ or # in the command window, but when you type in “id” and hit enter it should show you as root.
Step 15: Once you’re in the root shell, enter the command below.
echo /data/local/tmp/systemroot/remount2.sh > /sys/kernel/uevent_helper
Step 16: After waiting for about 30 seconds, type in and enter “mount” until you see / or rootfs and /system mounted as RW. Once you see them mounted as RW, push the next command as given below.
sh /data/local/tmp/systemroot/root.sh
Step 17: Your phone should reboot now and when it’s back on, you should be rooted. If you’re asked to update the SU binary, select the Normal method and you should be good to go.
One More Thing…
Once the phone is rooted, as we mentioned earlier, you might have some problems with certain apps not functioning as they are supposed to. So think twice before you do this. If you do not like the sound of that, you can check out the XDA thread by visiting the source link below and follow the second process.
