A consensus favorite root application for many people out there is the Xposed Installer. Xposed is a poor man’s custom ROM and a viable option for anyone just wanting to root the Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone but not necessarily go on to install a custom recovery. Like you know, we always need a custom recovery before we can think about installing a custom ROM. Some people don’t like taking the risk of installing a new ROM because it has a greater chance of bricking your device than anything else you can do with customizing. Even though there are many great custom ROMs to check out on most modern smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S6, there is nothing wrong with rooting the device and skipping the custom recovery to go ahead and install something else instead like the Xposed Framework. The way the Xposed Framework works is that you head over and download certain modules. As far as customizing your Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone goes, you can expect to tweak the device nearly the same amount as you would expect from a custom ROM. The options are (almost) limitless.
The rooting package in this guide for the Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone with the SM-G9208 model number is based on is the MMB29K.G9208ZTU2DPD1 firmware. Chainfire tells us that you do not need to be running that same firmware. All you need to do is be running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and have the Galaxy S6 with the SM-G9208 model number, and it will work. The build number is there so you can use it as an indicator just in case yours isn’t working. One of the reasons why that may be is because some of the Samsung devices do not boot old images.
Files You Need
- Download the Samsung Galaxy S6 SM-G9208 updated CF-Auto-Root package for Android 6.0.1 Android versions from here.
- Download the S6’s Samsung USB Drivers for the computer running Windows operating systems you are going to use in the guide from here.
There will be some Android software updates that are usually associated with the major updates that can bring new bootloaders with them. A new bootloader creates a temporary problem with the CF-Auto-Root tool because it means Chainfire needs to update the files for them to star working again. You will know if this is happening to you before Chainfire has had a chance to fix the problem by noticing a smartphone that does not boot after flashing the CF-Auto-Root tool or a device that does not flash. Any one those two problems should be reported to the official CF-Auto-Root tool at XDA-Developers where Chainfire can see your message so he can fix the problem. To fix the problem, he asks his user-base to submit the updated version of the recovery image file because he needs to apply the update. The updates will be automatically reflected in our guides because we have linked to the official repository for the required CF-Auto-Root tool made for the Samsung Galaxy S6 SM-G9208 smartphone.
Rooting the Samsung Galaxy S6 SM-G9208 smartphone running the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow Android version
- Enable the USB Debugging Mode on the Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone so you can connect to the computer and use the flashing app.
- Extract the rooting file by Chainfire for the S6 smartphone to the desktop of the computer.
- Install the Samsung USB Drivers on your computer so Odin can detect your device.
- Double-click on the Odin flashing application from the desktop of the computer and wait until the Odin user interface opens on the display.
- Turn off the Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone and then reboot directly to the download mode by pressing the hardware button combination for that mode.
- Connect the Galaxy S6 smartphone to the computer with the USB cable you usually use to charge the battery and then wait until you can see a blue or yellow ID: COM port box letting you know that your drivers are working.
- Do not make any changes from the default settings of the Odin user interface on the desktop of the computer.
- Click the AP button from Odin and then browse the desktop for the rooting package ending in the tar.md5 file extension.
- Click the Start button and then check out the S6’s display for when it says your device is getting the SuperSU application flashed, cleaning the cache partition and then flashing the stock recovery back on your device.
- Look at the display of the computer and check that it shows you a green pass message inside a box that it displayed in the top left corner of the Odin flashing app’s user interface.
In conclusion, that is how you root the Samsung Galaxy S6 SM-G9208 smartphone running the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow software updates by using a newer version of the CF-Auto-Root tool by Chainfire and a Windows computer. You can confirm that your S6 smartphone is now rooted by installing the basic root checker application from the Google Play Store.
Anyone looking for some troubleshooting tips should know that Chainfire says that each device must get into recovery mode during the flashing after you click the Start button, or else the device will not be rooted properly. You can fix that problem by booting directly into the recovery mode using the hardware button combination for that mode after the flashing completes.
Additionally, some people say that they try a few versions of the Odin app before one of them works. Chainfire bundles the Odin version 3.10 in his rooting packages, but that doesn’t mean it will work for everybody. Try installing one of the other Odin flashing applications if your Odin 3.10 doesn’t work for your device.