VZW Note Edge Marshmallow Bootloader Unlock Guide

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Guide: Unlock the bootloader on the Verizon Note Edge (SM-N915V)

This guide has been requested by several people, and is the combination of a couple different guides. It has been rewritten with proper English, better download links, and includes all steps necessary in a single guide. Note (pun intended) that this is only confirmed working up to the official CPD1 factory bootloader. If ever there is another release after this, there is no guarantee that it will work.

Also, please be aware of what this does to your device. This is meant to take a RETAIL device and turn it into a DEVELOPER device, by changing the bootloader (among other changes). Flashing another bootloader will kill your "developer" bootloader status, and may cause other complications. There are a lot of steps to this, so the weak-hearted might want to read this several times before attempting to do the switch. This guide is being written to reflect what I personally had to go through to get this working properly. Please use good judgement if something goes wrong, or doesn't work as expected. A couple of steps may seem like they shouldn't have to be repeated, but in my case, they did. It cant hurt, but follow my guide, and you should be up and running with an unlocked Marshmallow bootloader and a nice, debloated (or stock) ROM in no time!



Download required files

These are all the files that are required to make this work. I would suggest you put them ALL in the SAME folder, somewhere easily accessible, so you're not scrambling around looking in different places for different files. This whole process will take a bit of time, so be prepared. I've labeled each download with the step number that it corresponds to, to make things easier for you.

Step 1: Odin_3.12.3.zip
MD5: 0e08b7e8edcb07169c7dae234ec20dd5
Size: 1.0 MB


Step 4: N915V-MOD-ROM.zip
MD5: 39902330c9e115c888218ef6aeabadb7
Size: 1.94 GB


Step 8: KingoRoot.zip
MD5: 115ac6f4aa16ed5e31ad6d56c8094be6
Size: 17.5 MB


Step 9: samsung_unlock_edge.zip
MD5: b5278cbe1d7eb6175b13d8d2c805da3f
Size: 10.5 KB


Step 12: MM-STOCK-N915V.zip
MD5: 6c5bd4bc11815e8f03cf1e0b5deec7de
Size: 2.32 GB


Step 13: KERNEL-N915V-FIXED+root.zip
MD5: b6502ff25927e608a90beaea7583c1c5
Size: 15.6 MB


Step 14: twrp-3.0.2.0_915V.tar
MD5: 8f374071d0f665ca184220762d0b6d4e
Size: 16.3 MB



1: Extract Odin
Extract the folder from
Odin3_v3.12.3.zip. You dont need to actually install Odin, it runs as a stand alone application.

2: Boot your phone into Download Mode
To make this easy, pull the battery from your phone, and disconnect the USB cable if you have one plugged in. Put the battery back in. Now hold down HOME + VOL-DOWN + POWER until you feel the phone vibrate, then release all buttons.

3: Connect your phone to the computer
Connect your phone to the computer with a USB cable, and in Odin (once Windows installs the drivers), you should see an entry under one of the boxes that says "COM: X", and will appear green. That's when you know it's connected properly.

4: Flash modified Lollipop ROM with Marshmallow bootloader in Odin
Extract the tar file from N915_MOD-ROM.zip. Open up Odin, and in the AP section, select the tar file you just extracted. Now just hit Start, and let it finish. It will automatically reboot when done.

5: Reboot into recovery mode, and wipe data/factory reset
Again, pull the battery, with USB disconnected, and put it back in. This time hold down HOME + VOL-UP + POWER until you feel the phone vibrate, then release all buttons. Wipe data and do a factory reset, then reboot the phone into Android normally.

6: Set up the phone WITHOUT any internet connection
Basically, all you need to do here, is skip on through the setup. No need to enter any information in, as we are going to wipe the system again in a few minutes.

7: Enable USB Debugging
Go into Settings, and down to About phone. Tap on Build number several times until a toast pops up saying Developer Mode has been enabled. Back out to the main settings list, and go into Developer options. Check the box that says USB debugging.

8: Install KingoRoot, and root your device (first pass)
Extract the setup installer for KingoRoot and run it to install KingoRoot. I have personally scanned this app, and found NO viruses. Connect your phone using USB, and follow the steps given to you by the KingRoot application. I'm not going to retype them all here, as the exact order in which you might be required to do certain actions can change, depending if certain app steps are successful or not.

Once your successfully rooted, continue on to the next step. If your NOT rooted, or something didnt work, RETRY THIS STEP until you obtain root. You cannot continue without root.

9: Run the bootloader unlock commands (first pass)
This will do the actual unlock procedure to your bootloader by modifying its CID.

Start by extracting the file inside samsung_unlock_edge.zip. The file will have no filename extension. Hold down SHIFT and RIGHT CLICK inside the folder that contains the file, and click on Open command windows here. Inside the console that pops up, enter the following commands, one at a time, in order.

In this step, after running the last command, check that it reports that your EMMC chip has a CID starting with "15". If it does not, this will NOT work on your device.

adb push samsung_unlock_edge /data/local/tmp/ adb shell su cd /data/local/tmp/ chmod 777 samsung_unlock_edge chown root.root samsung_unlock_edge ./samsung_unlock_edge

When you have confirmed your CID starts with "15", go ahead and restart the phone, and proceed to the next step.

10: Run KingoRoot again (second pass)
This will be the SECOND pass that I had to do. Supposedly it's not necessary, but for me, after a reboot, root did not stick, and the preview unlocking step required me to run it again after a reboot. So just in case, we are going to run it again.

Again, open KingoRoot, and go through the rooting procedure again. Once you have obtained root again, proceed to the next step, where you will run the unlocking commands again.

11: Run the bootloader unlock commands again (second pass)
This is exactly the same as the first pass you did for the unlock command. But for reference, I will post it here again.

adb push samsung_unlock_edge /data/local/tmp/ adb shell su cd /data/local/tmp/ chmod 777 samsung_unlock_edge chown root.root samsung_unlock_edge ./samsung_unlock_edge

This time, if the change to the CID worked, you will be told to check your CID in the console window. If it has indeed changed, and matches, it worked, and you can move forward.

12: Flash the modified Marshmallow ROM (without bootloader) in Odin
This will flash the stock Marshmallow ROM (6.0.1, CPD1) that does NOT contain a bootloader. Remember, we don't want to touch the bootloader anymore, as that will kill our "conversion."

First, pull the battery, put it back in, and hold down HOME + VOL-DOWN + POWER until you feel the phone vibrate, and it enters Download Mode. Extract MM-STOCK-N915V.tar.md5 from the MM-STOCK-N915V.zip. Again, open up Odin, and in the AP section, select the tar.md5 file you just extracted. Hit Start, and let it finish, and it will reboot on its own. When it reboots, pull the battery, and proceed to the next step. You dont need to wait for it to boot all the way into Android. Leave Odin open.

13: Flash TWRP in Odin
This will flash TWRP to your phone. This is used to make backups of the phones internal partitions, and allow you to install custom ROMs, among many other features.

Again, pull the battery, put it back in, and hold down HOME + VOL-DOWN + POWER until you feel the phone vibrate, and it enters Download Mode. Since Odin is already open, hit Reset at the bottom, and in the AP section, select twrp-3.0.2.0_N915V.tar. Hit Start, and let it finish. When it reboots, pull the battery again, close Odin, and proceed to the next step.

14: Flash the custom kernel + root in TWRP recovery
This will flash a custom marshmallow kernel and root the ROM that was just flashed two steps ago.

Hold down HOME + VOL-UP + POWER until you feel the phone vibrate, and it enters Recovery Mode. Connect your phone to the computer by USB, and copy over KERNEL-N915V-FIXED+root.zip to either internal storage or the microsd card (if you have one installed). Once it's been copied over, go to Install, and navigate to the zip and flash it. If it throws an error while trying to install it, just reboot back into recovery, and try again. When it successfully installs, go ahead and reboot one last time..

Congrats! You should now have your former retail edition Galaxy Note Edge with a "developer" status on a Marshmallow bootloader, a custom recovery (TWRP), and a fully stock, rooted Marshmallow ROM!


Credits:

mnw1989: For the marshmallow bootloader unlock guide I wrote this from
npjohnson: For the original bootloader tutorial
beaups: For finding and exploiting the EMMC CID write bug
ryanbg: For compiling the exploit for the Note Edge
 
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