# Might seem like a stupid question...about flashing roms on carrier variants...



## KingVeto (Jul 27, 2012)

I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I have a question. Say there's a ROM I would like to flash....the Verizon version of the Paranoid Android GS3 ROM (d2vzw) is version 2.21... I've noticed that the I9300 version of the GS3, which I think is the international version of the phone, has the ROM updated to version 2.22, which has a lot of great fixes I would like. Can I flash the I9300 version of the ROM on my d2vzw? If not, could someone tell me why? Is is simply due to the radios/different frequencies because the I9300 is a world phone? Thanks guys. Appreciate the help.


----------



## SOTK (Jul 25, 2011)

I am not sure if have the exact technical answer you're looking for (someone else with better know-how can answer) but it's never a good idea to flash Rom's from other carriers. Bootloader is different. Kernel is different. The partitions may be even set up differently. You will have a brick if you do it.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


----------



## Goose306 (Sep 12, 2011)

KingVeto said:


> I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I have a question. Say there's a ROM I would like to flash....the Verizon version of the Paranoid Android GS3 ROM (d2vzw) is version 2.21... I've noticed that the I9300 version of the GS3, which I think is the international version of the phone, has the ROM updated to version 2.22, which has a lot of great fixes I would like. Can I flash the I9300 version of the ROM on my d2vzw? If not, could someone tell me why? Is is simply due to the radios/different frequencies because the I9300 is a world phone? Thanks guys. Appreciate the help.


LOL No. Just... no. Unless you want a real brick.

Especially International variant - here's the thing to start with:

International is a 1 GB RAM Quad-Core Exynos processor with no LTE bands so flashing just about ANYTHING designed for it will brick your device. Besides the hardware differences the partitions are different as well which means you can flash something away and effectively wipe out download mode as well which means even ODIN can't save you. Not to mention you are referring to PA which is AOSP which would include a kernel which clearly wouldn't function as it thinks it'll be going on the quad... there's reasons upon reasons you'd never want to do it essentially.

The closest you would have is flashing ROMs for the different US variants as at least the majority of the hardware is the same. However, even that will not work. Different radio bands, RILs and other items will cause it to break. Sometime in the future it may be possible to create a "ROM Converter" type of program for the US variants but its really not needed - all things considered if you are going to run a ROM through a converter its probably going to be AOSP based - and if that's the case you can also just build from scratch with the features you want anyways.

Now all that being said kernels are mostly interchangeable on US variants. Don't use one from the International (for fairly obvious reasons) and Sprint ones were screwed up last I checked (they would boot but had other issues) but AT&T/T-MO/Verizon seem to share a unified kernel structure.


----------



## KingVeto (Jul 27, 2012)

Thanks guys I appreciate your help. I used to blindly flash roms like a moron (and that's how I perma-bricked my Atrix) so I wasn't about to flash something clearly designed for another model/carrier variant, haha. I'm a little slow sometimes, but I've still got a couple brain cells working up there...mostly I was just wondering what significant differences between the models was . 
Thanks again for breaking it down for me without the condescending and ignorant responses most people post, I really appreciate it.


----------



## invisiblek (Aug 19, 2011)

The big reason we dont want to flash things from the international version is that it's kernel is on mmcblk0p5.
We dont want to be flashing things there, that's where our bootloader is, mmcblk0p7 is our kernel.
If we overwrite mmcblk0p5, its time to send it to get jtag'd back to life.

Something to make this all a bit less scary:
There is a nice feature in the update.zip's for these devices called assert.
Basically what it does is checks your device's model (d2vzw, d2spr, i9300, etc) before doing anything. if the rom you are flashing does not match, it will fail and not flash anything.
We need to be a bit careful here though, some people may not include this assert in the updater-script in their zip's so it would essentially nullify this feature.
Older verisons of cwm, the ones we had originally for our device, will possibly flash things without checking the assert. as long as you are running twrp or cwm 6.0+ you are good to go.

Now, if you were to flash another d2 device (d2tmo, d2spr, d2att, d2usc) by say, removing the assert in updater-script, there's a good chance it will boot, but things wont work right.
Since the partitioning is the same on these devices, you wont end up with a brick like you would with an i9300 rom.

Odin is smart enough to not flash things from other devices, but I definitely recommend not testing the waters. if you were to flash a bootloader from another device (even a d2 variant) you will end up with a brick.

EDIT:


KingVeto said:


> Thanks again for breaking it down for me without the condescending and ignorant responses most people post, I really appreciate it.


You'll find a lot less of this on rootz


----------



## droid2drummer (Aug 24, 2011)

Wow. Glad you asked bro. Though to many this is obvious due to individual models threads. But no question is stupid. Not if your genuine. So glad you did ask prior to brick. The radios are different also the mapping as the cores are obviously different. However there is hope. I've seen a thread around xda that will auto port between carriers. So cross fingers bro

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2


----------



## KingVeto (Jul 27, 2012)

Again, you guys are great. I've been flashing and rooting for awhile now, but never really bothered to understand the basics. Thanks for the education, guys. You are good people.


----------



## RMarkwald (Oct 19, 2011)

invisiblek said:


> if you were to flash a bootloader from another device (even a d2 variant) you will end up with a brick.
> 
> EDIT:
> 
> You'll find a lot less of this on rootz


There was a user on the TeamUSCellular forums that somehow flashed a d2vzw bootloader and stock ROM to his d2usc device. It booted, but wouldn't connect to the USC network. I think he said he thought that the d2usc bootloader was locked, so he d/l'd the EZ Unlocker Tool for the d2vzw version, ran that, it failed, rebooted, and when he went into Download Mode to attempt to ODIN back it said he was the d2vzw, he then ODIN'd d2vzw's stock file, and he then had to promptly send it for a $60 JTAG repair.

Moral of the story: Unless you like headaches and not having your phone for a week or so, stick with ROMs for your device.


----------

