Samsung Galaxy Note 3 gains KNOX-friendly rooting method

Samsung‘s latest S Pen phablet may be a wonderful device, but the Galaxy Note 3 has also been shrouded in controversy, some of which involve the new KNOX security framework. But now thanks to some developers from XDA, at least one of those problems can be put the rest and owners will now be able root their devices without tripping up KNOX.

After the novelty of the newly launched Galaxy Note 3, whose hardware and software are, as we’ve written in our review of the device, quite impressive, news about some of the device’s imposed limitations or security checks have cast both the smartphone and Samsung in a rather negative light. First was the issue of region-locked devices which, despite Samsung issuing an official explanation, did not sit well with many people. Then just recently, it was discovered that, thanks to the KNOX security framework, flashing the Galaxy Note 3 permanently incremented the flash counter with no way to reset it via third-party apps, a behavior never before exhibited by any Android device.

While KNOX might present benefits to some use cases, especially in BYOD scenarios, such mechanisms that lock down a device more often than not also become a huge obstacle to owners who want to gain full control of the device that they bought. It seems that even the relatively less destructive process of rooting the Galaxy Note 3 could have also triggered KNOX. But thanks to XDA developer designgears, with help from popular Super SU developer Chainfire and an anonymous source, a method is now available that will not trip up KNOX. The device will still indicate that it has been customized and unlocked, but that can also safely be addressed by the Xposed Framework.

A word of caution to those attempting this process. Rooting is not the same as flashing a custom ROM, and flashing will still produce the same KNOX problems mentioned in the earlier report. This method will also wipe data and internal sdcard contents. This rooting process supports all US Galaxy Note 3 variants, with the SM-N900W8, SM-N9005, and SM-N900V tested to be working, while the SM-N900Q is still a work in progress.

SOURCE: XDA