# Stock Rom for Showcase (s950c) on Straight Talk?



## neptuneleo

Hi everyone, I'm new here. Purchased a Samsung Showcase SCH-S950c from Straight Talk last month. Really would like to upgrade to ICS or JB. Looking for a way to backup my stock installation as this phone is not as popular as the Proclaim.









I've located a website that contains all of the opensource codes for ALL samsung phones. I'm not a dev but this may help in the process.

http://opensource.sa...o?method=search


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## showcasemodr

You could try odinmaker on the android play store. No guarantees though


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## neptuneleo

Thanks man, I'll check it out. Much appreciated.


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## neptuneleo

Odinmaker worked great, thanks again showcasemodr.

One slight problem, I flashed clockworkmod to the phone before doing this. Is there any way to get the stock recovery back from the phone itself or using the opensource maybe?


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## showcasemodr

neptuneleo said:


> Odinmaker worked great, thanks again showcasemodr.
> 
> One slight problem, I flashed clockworkmod to the phone before doing this. Is there any way to get the stock recovery back from the phone itself or using the opensource maybe?


Maybe, i am not sure though. It shouldn't bea problem though. The rom is still stock so if you had any issues you should still be able to take it in to be fixed.

One other option is if there is an update it would totally reset your phone and recovery. If you use Samsung kies to upgradei can also show you how to pull the stock room during the update process.


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## neptuneleo

Well I flashed cm10 and it worked.  Then I tried to test out the backups from Odinmaker. Finally got all of them to load with heimdall but now I have a boot animation loop







Need to find a stock package that works. Sammobile doesnt have the firmware though


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## neptuneleo

After 400 retries  IM finally back to stock. Phone would not let me flash a generic i500 stock ROM totally but it seemed to correct the boot loop. Hopefully you can guide us on making backups, those official ones with the .tar.md5 and stuff.


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## showcasemodr

neptuneleo said:


> After 400 retries  IM finally back to stock. Phone would not let me flash a generic i500 stock ROM totally but it seemed to correct the boot loop. Hopefully you can guide us on making backups, those official ones with the .tar.md5 and stuff.


So how did you get back to stock GB?


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## neptuneleo

First I flashed the backups I made with Odinmaker in Heimdall (with pit file made in heimdall, factoryfs, Zimage, data(which has errors I believe) and recovery(not stock).
Got boot loop animation for Tracphone.
Then attempted to flash the i500 Showcase Generic drivers in Odin.
Odin failed to update (but did flash new recovery.bin I believe, got to radio/modem. file and failed)
Restarted
Still had animation loop
Factory wipe in CMW
Restarted and it booted normally. I was back to my backup setup that was still rooted.


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## neptuneleo

I would have kept the ICS fascinate CM rom on my phone (Cyanogen is nice!  , but I was concerned that the ip settings were reflecting that I was a Verizon customer and NOT a correct 3rd party reseller (Straight Talk/Tracphone) customer.

Google Play even said I was a Verizon Samsung Fascinate!

I couldn't use the secret dialer codes (DEBUG in particular) to change my data, mms, phone provisioning settings, (I took screen shots from the stock setup) so I bailed.









If there was a way to change them I would go right back to CM9 in a heartbeat.. well after I make or find a proper backup of stock that actually works correctly.


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## mezster

neptuneleo said:


> I would have kept the ICS fascinate CM rom on my phone (Cyanogen is nice!  , but I was concerned that the ip settings were reflecting that I was a Verizon customer and NOT a correct 3rd party reseller (Straight Talk/Tracphone) customer.
> 
> Google Play even said I was a Verizon Samsung Fascinate!
> 
> I couldn't use the secret dialer codes (DEBUG in particular) to change my data, mms, phone provisioning settings, (I took screen shots from the stock setup) so I bailed.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If there was a way to change them I would go right back to CM9 in a heartbeat.. well after I make or find a proper backup of stock that actually works correctly.


I wouldn't worry about what the play store tells you, it tells me I have a sprint galaxy s when I am a uscc customer. Just because your build.prop says Verizon that doesn't mean that is the network you are connected to. Heck, many have edited their build.prop to say sgs3 so they can get svoice app to work on their phones, it didn't affect their network connectivity.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using RootzWiki


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## showcasemodr

neptuneleo said:


> First I flashed the backups I made with Odinmaker (factoryfs, Zimage, data(which has errors I believe) and recovery(not stock).
> Got boot loop animation for Tracphone.
> Then attempted to flash the i500 Showcase Generic drivers in Odin.
> Odin failed to update (but did flash new recovery.bin I believe, got to radio/modem. file and failed)
> Restarted and it booted normally. I was back to my backup setup that was still rooted.


thats great that you got odinmaker to work and was able to get back to yiur stock. you might want to play with the different backup options in odinmaker.

as far as your network, you should still be using straightalks network, its just that google play probably just thinks your verizon. but then again your phone is a different model so it might handle things differently.

if you send me your apn settings (use thapp Apns backup and restore) file, i will edit the most recent cm10 nightly so that the phone dropdown banner says straighttalk and add your apns for mms to work.

im not on verizon (nextech wireless generic showcase) and it works flawlessly.


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## neptuneleo

Wow, great minds think alike. I was working on the APN all last night and it worked! Thanks for the support!

IMHO, the main stumbling block is these DAMN backups.
Odinmaker ? They say to use the files in ODIN to restore but you still need the pit flie. Luckily I could make one in Heimdall, will be using this in the future to test backing up stock.
ClockworkMod. Only good for flashing zips, Nandroid backup too unreliable and error prone.
Would making my own zip file of the entire system files from Droid Explorer work in CMW? Gonna test it out tonight.


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## showcasemodr

neptuneleo said:


> Wow, great minds think alike. I was working on the APN all last night and it worked! Thanks for the support!
> 
> IMHO, the main stumbling block is these DAMN backups.
> Odinmaker ? They say to use the files in ODIN to restore but you still need the pit flie. Luckily I could make one in Heimdall, will be using this in the future to test backing up stock.
> ClockworkMod. Only good for flashing zips, Nandroid backup too unreliable and error prone.
> Would making my own zip file of the entire system files from Droid Explorer work in CMW? Gonna test it out tonight.


good to know.

i totally forgot to mention the .pit file. i toyed with making my own odin files before i realized that the files were already on rootzwiki for my phone. the guide i was using listed how to make the .pit file so if the heimdall one doesnt work nicely let me know.

once you get used to odin its actually pretty awesome. its damn near impossible to brick these things.

the guide i was using listed the linux commands to combine the separate files as a tar file and put an md5 sum to it. which wasnt too bad.


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## neptuneleo

Sounds good bro, its good to have options when doing stuff like this and this forum is a great resource!


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## TMFGO45

How do you root this phone? The SCH-S950C from Straight Talk? I just need to root it so I can install wifi tether for my grandma and be done with this thing

I see you are flashing stuff, so how bout the root process? Can I JUST root without needing to flash a new rom that is prerooted? This phone is on Android 2.3.6 btw.


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## showcasemodr

neptuneleo please confirm the following steps, this is how I root the SCH-I500:

Make sure you have the Samsung Drivers installed for your phone.

Download Odin https://www.box.com/...7sad0h13kf74rf2 (I use v1.85 and haven't had any problems. Make sure to unzip it)

Also download these two files:
CWM Recovery: https://www.box.com/...scg100n1uy12bt5 (put this on your desktop on your computer)​Superuser zip: https://www.box.com/...b5vszb5tw9zr9ev (put this on the root of your phone's sd card)​
1. Open Odin on your computer.

2. Power off your phone and pull the battery. Leave it out until Odin steps are completed.

3. While holding the Volume Down button, plug your phone into your computer. Once the yellow triangle (download mode) pops up you may let go of the volume down button. Odin should recognize your phone and there should be a yellow box by the ID:COM area

4. Click the PDA button in Odin and browse to the CWM Recovery file you downloaded and select Open. Dont check any other boxes!

5. Click START. when Odin is done it should show as succeeded(Pass) and your phone should go blank.

6. Now unplug your phone and put the battery back in.

7. Press and hold both volume buttons and the power button all together until you see the Samsung icon. let go and your phone should now boot into ClockworkMod Recovery. If it doesn't then keep trying, it takes a couple tries sometimes.

8. From CWM, navigate to the "install zip from sdcard" option with your volume buttons and select that option using the power button.

9. Then choose zip from sdcard, navigate to the su-2.3.6.1.x.zip file you put on your phone's sdcard and select with the power button. Hit yes.

10. When it is done installing that zip file, reboot your phone and it should boot into Android.

You should now have root access (superuser should be installed) and will more than likely need to update.

Like I said this is how to root the SCH-I500 so I am assuming the s950c is similar.


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## neptuneleo

Yup, this is pretty much the same process I used. It's the same phone


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## TMFGO45

I can verify this is how I ended up finally doing it after tons of searching. It works.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus! (CNA 3.8, Zen v3.1, TWRP 2.3)


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## Lucid Enemy

could someone upload there odinfiles? I dont think the i500 is the same....since i tried flashing an i500 rom on odin and messed up my partition tables... what I really need is the pit with the stock rom


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## showcasemodr

I sent neptuneleo a PM to see if he would send the Odin files. I have a post of various Odin files and this would be nice to add to it.

I don't suppose anybody on stock S950c would want to download Odinmaker and try using it to make backup files. It has a few different options to backup your phone. I am not sure if will work 100% but I think neptuneleo was able to get back to stock one time.

In addition, I believe a .pit file would need to be created. Which isn't too hard to do.

If anyone has an s950 and Odinmaker doesn't work, you could always try these directions to pull the files and then tar them w/ an md5sum http://www.freeyourandroid.com/guide/building_roms_for_odin


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## Lucid Enemy

how would I make the pit files? like the only diffrence between the two would be those darned pit files...


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## showcasemodr

im pretty sure that you need the full odin file plus the .pit file.


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## Lucid Enemy

isnt that what odinmaker does?


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## showcasemodr

yea but i dont think it makes the pit file. it appears the pit file.

if you have the files from odinmaker youcan make yout own pit file with that guide above. see step 9


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## Lucid Enemy

unfortuantly i just jump right into flashing and didnt care to do odinmaker.... actually i just learned about it lol.... always thaught nandroid was the only way


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## Lucid Enemy

well heres what i did. Flashed CWM fix for CM7 and than flashed a CM10 rom for the fasinate... it did a partitions check and must have made them for me.... after that I was surprised it booted and ran just fine.... how ever when ever I use the hardware keys to CWM i get the old one... and if i used the reboot recovery command it braught me over to the cm10 version of cwm.... so leason learned... no flashing with out odin maker HAHA


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## showcasemodr

Lucid Enemy said:


> well heres what i did. Flashed CWM fix for CM7 and than flashed a CM10 rom for the fasinate... it did a partitions check and must have made them for me.... after that I was surprised it booted and ran just fine.... how ever when ever I use the hardware keys to CWM i get the old one... and if i used the reboot recovery command it braught me over to the cm10 version of cwm.... so leason learned... no flashing with out odin maker HAHA


once in cm10 just reboot to recovery. cm10 works great and you can just use cwm to flash newer nightlies. you will definitely need the odin files if you ever need to flash back to stock. working on getting the files and .pit from neptuneleo but itll be a bit. in the meantime enjoy Jellybean!


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## showcasemodr

If somebody has a Straight Talk s950c that is on stock gingerbread would they be willing to try something? I am trying to put together a full Odin flash file and need the stock modem and recovery files and a few other files.

It would help if one was also slightly familiar with command prompts (but I'll explain in detail how to do it)

1. Download ADB: https://www.box.com/...se0v2awhkwo7bf4 and unzip it to your C: (the location should be C:\ADB)

2. On your phone turn on USB Debugging mode (Settings\Applications\Development\USB debugging check box)

3. Plug your phone into your computer (don't put it into mass storage mode, just connect it) Your computer should install drivers if it hasn't before.

4. Hit the start button, and in the search box type cmd. (don't hit enter). Go up to the cmd.exe program and right click and hit "Run as Adminstrator" (I'm running windows 7 64 bit)

5. In the command prompt type these commands (see the attached picture for how it should look) https://www.box.com/...md0hs4k8fqrkf2i

cd c:\adb [press enter after each command]​adb shell​su​
mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/stl9 /system​
cat /proc/mounts​this should kick out a long list of details about the phone's partition layout (take a screen shot of this so I can confirm the partition layout)​
6. Depending on the layout the following commands should dump the images/files need to build a stock odin file. (those are lower case L's by the way)

dd if=/dev/block/stl9 of=/sdcard/factoryfs.rfs bs=4096

dd if=/dev/block/bml7 of=/sdcard/zImage bs=4096

dd if=/dev/block/bml12 of=/sdcard/modem.bin bs=4096

dd if=/dev/block/bml8 of=/sdcard/recovery.bin bs=4096​
dd if=/dev/block/bml2 of=/sdcard/s950c.pit bs=4096​
7. If the above commands worked, then you should have 5 files (factoryfs.rfs, zImage, modem, recovery, and s950c) on your phone's sd card. Just upload that and send them to me and I'll put them in a flashable tar file for Odin. If all goes according to plan then that would be a full stock file to use to flash back to stock Gingerbread. (there is no personal data in these image dumps, just the stock images that are on all s950c's. Personal data is stored in two separate partitions that I don't need and you don't want to send anyways).


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## neptuneleo

Do you need to be rooted to use adb? I got su not found... figured it out


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## showcasemodr

neptuneleo said:


> Do you need to be rooted to use adb? I got su not found... figured it out


Yea sorry I forgot to mention that in the instructions. Phone must be rooted first. So I am not 100% sure we'll get the full stock recovery from these methods (if they even work).

Were you able to run the cat /proc/mounts and get a listing of the partitions? It should be how I listed above but you never know.

May need to wait until there is an update available over Kies (if ever) and pull the file during the upgrade process.


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## showcasemodr

Theres a method for getting back to stock on the S950C found here: http://rootzwiki.com...rs/#entry968951

Huge thanks to neptuneleo!


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## showcasemodr

I was able to pull together some stock files from the Straight Talk S950C (including the modem) Huge thanks to dinlaca! If anybody needs to flash back to stock wants to try it and let me know if it works that would be great.

Just flash this full stock file in Odin under PDA: https://www.box.com/...n1jdxvr5s9p48hx

Along with the pit file (make sure repartition is checked): https://www.box.com/...7tr94rljgyc5629

I had to combine multiple files and believe I got everything in and put a proper md5 sum on it. Let me know if it gives you errors or wont flash in Odin. If it doesn't work then follow the method posted above this.


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## dinlaca

showcasemodr said:


> I was able to pull together some stock files from the Straight Talk S950C (including the modem) Huge thanks to dinlaca! If anybody needs to flash back to stock wants to try it and let me know if it works that would be great.
> 
> Just flash this full stock file in Odin under PDA: https://www.box.com/...n1jdxvr5s9p48hx
> 
> Along with the pit file (make sure repartition is checked): https://www.box.com/...7tr94rljgyc5629
> 
> I had to combine multiple files and believe I got everything in and put a proper md5 sum on it. Let me know if it gives you errors or wont flash in Odin. If it doesn't work then follow the method posted above this.


Curious if this also includes stock recovery.

Any chance you can submit the above info to Chainfire on XDA to see if he would use this info to bring support for this phone to his app, Mobile Odin? Having this phone be supported by Mobile Odin would definitely make me reconsider my decision to use the LG Dynamic instead. I am not sure if the phone itself is eligible (due to existing CWM being version 4, and NOT 5 or 6), but Chainfire would likely know best about that.

More info re getting support for device on Mobile Odin can be found @ http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1347899 (post 4).

Thanks for your hard work in having put this together, and thanks in advance for considering submitting for Mobile Odin support.

FWIW, the reason I would love Mobile Odin support on this thing is because I don't like having a device out of warranty (due to custom ROM flashing, and the resulting yellow triangle in download mode). With Mobile Odin, can flash away, with no yellow triangle issues.


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## dinlaca

By the way, I know that this is off topic (so feel free to move where it belongs), but has anyone figured out an alternative way to root (other than flashing CWM recovery, which kills the stock recovery before it can be copied)? Just curious.

I found that rageagainstthecage worked on my LG Dynamic (as it does on the LG Logic), but I never tried that exploit on the Showcase (tried everything else I could find, though, without success).


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## dinlaca

One more thought: If you could put together an Odin flashable tar.md5 file that includes a PRE-ROOTED system partition, but does not include a recovery partition, then Odin could be used to flash this file, and the resulting phone would be rooted, with stock recovery (which could be pulled via dd or cat since the system was now rooted).

The benefits of having a stock recovery include: having a FULLY STOCK tar.md5 (with possibly rooted system, easily unrooted if my previously posted SuperSU-rooted system partition was used to make the tar.md5), and having a stock recovery image which could be used separately, or to help bring Mobile Odin support to this phone.

Thanks in advance for considering the above.


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## showcasemodr

The full file doesn't include the stock recovery. The same goes for the system. Since its after you rooted I believe it would be rooted for anyone flashing this. I used the files you uploaded and since the phone was rooted and CWM recovery was flashed before you could pull the recovery then the recovery in this tar file is CWM 4. I'm unwaware of how to pull the stock recovery unless there was an update for the S950C that we could extract during the upgrade process. In short, that is what was done for my Generic CDMA Showcase SCH-I500. i was able to extract/obtain the full stock tar file from the Samsung Mini Kies updater (which includes the stock recovery for my phone). So until then I think the S950C tar file is stuck with the custom recovery.

Which to be honest isn't really a big deal. This would allow someone to go back to essentially stock GB and perform an reactivation/support troubleshooting if needed, as long as that single tar file and .pit will get you back to Gingerbread. This is biased, but since I am a few years out of warranty and this phone already has two predecessors and soon to be another if something really bad happens I can just toss it and either buy a fairly cheap replacement showcase or upgrade. I know thats not a great answer 

As far as mobile Odin I am not sure if that would be too necessary. The process for my phone is to use Odin to flash the CWM4, then from there I can either root or install a ROM. When you flash a rom (i.e. CM10) it puts you on a new recovery. Currently on the latest CM10 Nightly it has CWM Recovery v6.0.2.5. If you flash CM10 all you have to do is push the power button and restart to recovery, which takes you directly to CWM6, and from there you can flash other roms or updates to CM10 (or CM10.1) as well as the GAPPS file.


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## showcasemodr

If flashing that in Odin with the .pit file doesn't work then I can put together a new one. I have a couple different combinations of files I can try, but that first should be the closest to stock that can be achieved for now.

Again this is just me being biased, but if the S950C works as well with CM10 as my SCH-I500 does, then I would definitely recommend hanging onto it. JT has done a crazy great job of developing/support for the Fascinate and us Mes/Showcase users benefit from his work.


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## dinlaca

showcasemodr said:


> As far as mobile Odin I am not sure if that would be too necessary. The process for my phone is to use Odin to flash the CWM4, then from there I can either root or install a ROM. When you flash a rom (i.e. CM10) it puts you on a new recovery. Currently on the latest CM10 Nightly it has CWM Recovery v6.0.2.5. If you flash CM10 all you have to do is push the power button and restart to recovery, which takes you directly to CWM6, and from there you can flash other roms or updates to CM10 (or CM10.1) as well as the GAPPS file.


There have been issues raised with flashing CM10 nightly onto Straight Talk phones on other phones (including the LG Logic); something about the system working, but the radio modem not working. My suspicion is that Straight Talk has a few customized binaries that permit /system to interface with the radio, and that these binaries are not easily discovered and not present in CM10. I know that Mobile Odin wouldn't solve things, but it would at least prevent that Yellow Triangle count from going up as you had to flash and reflash while looking for the right combination of CM10 and special binaries.

But, since I don't currently have the phone, mere speculation by me.


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## showcasemodr

dinlaca said:


> One way to get stock recovery would be to make/flash a tar.md5 file where the previously flashed CWM recovery file had not been included; in other words, the one you previously built, but no recovery partition included. That way, once flashed with Odin which would skip flashing recovery (since there was no recovery to flash), the flasher could use the rooted system phone to dd the stock recovery partition. Possible to make such a tar.md5, or not?
> 
> There have been issues raised with flashing CM10 nightly onto Straight Talk phones on other phones (including the LG Logic); something about the system working, but the radio modem not working. My suspicion is that Straight Talk has a few customized binaries that permit /system to interface with the radio, and that these binaries are not easily discovered and not present in CM10. I know that Mobile Odin wouldn't solve things, but it would at least prevent that Yellow Triangle count from going up as you had to flash and reflash while looking for the right combination of CM10 and special binaries.
> 
> But, since I don't currently have the phone, mere speculation by me.


I see what you mean about the pre-rooted system. I can make a tar file without the modem. We'd have to have someone with a stock S950C that would be willing to flash the tar. Then run the commands or use Odinmaker to pull the official stock recovery. Then from there I can just include it in a new tar file.

As far as the modem not working on the S950C on CM10 I have no clue. I haven't seen anybody post anything whether CM10 works on the S950C or not.


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## showcasemodr

If someone has a full stock S950C (someone who hasn't flashed CWM Recovery or Rooted) and wants to try flashing a new tar file in Odin (one that is pre-rooted but doesn't have the custom recovery) and be willing to pull the modem then shoot me a pm and I'll pull a file together.


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## hotcyclonis

I have a show case from straighttalk that i'm trying to root and don't have any roms or a recovery for.my phone


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## dinlaca

showcasemodr said:


> If someone has a full stock S950C (someone who hasn't flashed CWM Recovery or Rooted) and wants to try flashing a new tar file in Odin (one that is pre-rooted but doesn't have the custom recovery) and be willing to pull the modem then shoot me a pm and I'll pull a file together.


I did not know that the recovery was in the modem partition. Sneaky Samsung!!


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