rSAP installation with "root light"

[admin]

Some of you requested I should get rSAP working without rooting the phone. This is especially important for all Samsung Galaxy S II users who lost rSAP support when updating to Android 4.

I tried but came to the conclusion that at least temporary root is necessary to install some files. The rSAP app itself will run without root access in the future.

I'm currently thinking of the following installation steps, which may replace the installer app:

• Connect phone to PC via USB
• The current kernel is extracted from phone and stored on PC
• An installation kernel is installed on phone. Now the phone restarts once to install the necessary files
• Original kernel is restored to the phone

I would put these steps into an easy-to-use MS Windows GUI. This may work on all supported Android phones, I will implement it first for the Galaxy S II. The current installation app will still be supported in the future for all of you who have their phones rooted anyway and want an easy installation.

Pros

• No permanent root, no Superuser app on the phone. This means more security
• Minimum changes to your phone

Cons

• The phone was temporarily rooted. I guess for warranty this makes no difference to a full root. I did not yet check if you have a yellow triangle on the Galaxy S II after this procedure, but the "flash count" will be increased.
• Bootloader must be unlocked for HTC and Nexus phones

Before I start I would like to hear your comments. Would such an installation help you? Would you prefer it over a full root although it is technically quite similar?

[admin]

Seems I was too optimistic. It is not possible to extract the existing kernel without root...

Anyway, is there demand for an unrooted ROM that supports rSAP, even if it is installed like a rooted ROM?

[Florian76]

As i use a company phone where iám not allowed to root the phone as it looses the waranty i need a solution with no rooting of the phone.

If this is possible this will help any other installation with rooting the phone or having the flashcounter increased is not useful.

But i think if you will manage to build a non root version your money counter will increase very fast

[simont1952]

It would be of great value if you could produce a version that did not require rooting and would sell well I believe.

There is no other solution.

[admin]

I tried... But Android is quite a secure operating system. And all paths to access the SIM card need privileged rights. The only possibility to install something like rSAP is, that Samsung would digitally sign my installation package. But I don't even know who I could talk to at Samsung about such a topic.

So I understand it is not worth the work to create a "root light" installation.

[admin]

I searched on and found out how to install rSAP without any additional tools. You only would have to copy a zip file to the SD card and then boot to the original Samsung recovery software to install this zip file. After that the standard rSAP installation procedure would work.

It does not change any download counter, and there will be no yellow triangle! The installation will only add 2 files to the otherwise untouched system.

Is that OK?

[RoadXY]

Is it possible to use the STOCK and OEM recovery for this?
That would be great and I'm glad I bought the app previously since you keep on improving and listing to your users!

[admin]

This works only with the stock recovery and only for Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note ICS.

[RoadXY]

Great, I'll notify my collegues who are now holding the ICS update!