It’s always big news when one is unlocked, and it’s always tragic when one is re-locked. This happened recently with the Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II. First, it was unlocked by XDA Elite Recognized Developer AdamOutler. A few months later, Verizon pulled a slick one and locked it back up. Now, there is a new way to unlock the Verizon bootloader.
XDA Recognized Developer Ralekdev discovered the exploit while Adam helped deploy it. Much the same as the first time around. It’s an entirely new exploit designed to take care of Verizon’s latest ninja OTA. If you’re unfamiliar with the specifics, Verizon released an OTA that updated the bootloader. Of course, the sole purpose of the updated bootloader was to patch the exploit being used to get around the first one.
This new exploit is delivered using Adam’s tool CASUAL, so it’s very easy to use. Users download the tool and use it to unlock the bootloader. As Adam explains, CASUAL will boot your Note 2 into bootloader mode. In Linux, the tool uses Heimdall to auto-flash an exploit, whereas Windows users have to manually use Odin. It then reboots and performs a few more exploits. After that, the devices enters download mode. From here, a custom bootloader and recovery are flashed. Once again, this is automatic on Linux via Heimdall, whereas Windows users have to do it manually. When everything is said and done, the device then boots into recovery to allow users to immediately flash and make backups. After this extremely easy to follow process is complete, the Note 2 is unlocked once again. There isn’t any Mac support just yet, so you’ll need Linux or Windows.
CASUAL, the tool itself, also received some updates. For those who may not know, CASUAL is a multi-device, multi-platform tool in which Adam likes to place his work. Given that it’s open source, it’s also customizable and modifiable by anyone. Some of the other things CASUAL is capable of doing are rooting the Droid RAZR, enabling hidden menus on the Galaxy Note II, and the Note 2 bootloader exploit. The newest feature is a built-in kill switch. This has a lot of uses, but how it works is pretty simple. If you’re running CASUAL revision 200 with a script revision 1, and revision 2 gets released, CASUAL will automatically obtain revision 2 before the script is run again. Essentially, it checks to make sure you’re on the most updated revision of any given script before execution. If you aren’t, auto updates to the latest script. If CASUAL itself updates, users are sent to a support page. This new update system ensures that everyone using CASUAL has the most updated scripts available.
It’s a whole lot of awesome packed into one mod. To learn more about the Galaxy Note 2 unlock method, check out the new bootloader unlock thread. You can find more info on CASUAL in its repository here. If you’d like to see how it happens in a video, check out the YouTube video below: