LS980ZVA - All you need to know! topic

Before I step into the details, here's a little history..

Code:

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LS980ZV7 (Initial Release)
LS980ZV8 (Security Update)
LS980ZVA (Sprint Spark and loki-killer)

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Loki: Our device uses a bootloader called an "aboot" which must validate the boot and recovery partitions before they can be booted.
We are allowed to use custom boot images (ROMs + Kernels) and recoveries because of loki. Loki is a program that patches our "Unoffical" boot or recovery images before they are installed, this is usually done in the .zip during flash, which is why most people don't worry about it.

LS980ZVA (Spark Update)

This update does 2 major things, patch loki, and add tri-band capabilities.

If you take the update, you will NOT loose the ability to ever use a custom ROM. We just need to downgrade the "aboot" to the exploitable ZV7 aboot.

You can find that "aboot" zv7-aboot

After rooting, (use ioroot21) you can put the zv7-aboot.img on your sdcard, and open terminal emulator. Issue this command:

Code:

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dd if=/path/to/your/zv7-aboot.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/aboot

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(You can also use adb if you prefer)

After you have downgraded your aboot, you will need a custom recovery. Download Flashify off the Google Play market (or use FreeGee to make the process faster) and place this file on your sdcard. twrp_2.6.3.3_loki-ls980.img
Open flashify, select recovery image, and find that .img, I have already loki'd this image, so you don't need to worry about it not working. Just be sure that you have downgraded your aboot first!

At the moment, the ZVA radio that came with your ota has completely broken compatability with all other non-ZVA ROMs, so if you want to install CM/PA/AOKP/DerpG2/OptimusDE, you will need to downgrade your radio to non-Spark ZV8/7, just flash this file in your newly installed recovery.

Now you're safe to flash any AOSP ROM!

Thanks for help figuring this one out to @autoprime @garwynn @Shelnutt2 @dougie187