How To Root Samsung Galaxy S10

Here is the official Magisk support for Samsung Galaxy S10!

While Galaxy S10 lineup has just been on shelves for a couple of weeks, the Android development community has successfully rooted Galaxy S10 phones. In the latest Galaxy S10 phones, Samsung has used the A-only system-as-root setup, which means that the boot image only contains the kernel binary without ramdisk inside.

Similar setup already deployed on Android-Pie devices, the solutions for those phones are rather simple: add a ramdisk section into the boot image and then hexpatch the kernel to use ramdisk. But, with the new Galaxy S10, the bootloader will only load the kernel binary to the memory, meaning the kernel will use the system partition as the root directory. There is no option, but to install Magisk onto the recovery partition.

 Gain Root Access On Samsung Galaxy S10

Note:

  • This guide is ONLY for Galaxy phones with Android 9.0 pre-installed, currently, they are S10 series and A50. If you are using other Galaxy phones, please follow the specific installation guide.
  • Your Galaxy S10 must have an unlockable bootloader, meanings that all Exynos devices are supported, whilst S10 devices for the Northern American market (Snapdragon SOCs) do not work.
  • Installing Magisk WILL trip KNOX
  • For the first time of installing Magisk, it requires a full data wipe, so a backup is recommended.

Unlock Bootloader Galaxy S10

Normally I will not show the instructions for this, but since things had changed drastically over previous Samsung devices, so I figure these steps below.

  • Enable bootloader unlocking in Developer options → OEM unlocking
  • Power off your phone and press Bixby + Volume Down buttons while connecting your phone into the computer to boot into download mode.
  • Long press Volume Up button to unlock the bootloader of your Galaxy S10. The process will wipe your data and then reboot.

Quickly complete the initial setup. Skip through all the steps since your phone will be wiped again later when installing Magisk. Remember to connect the device to the internet in the setup process!

Activate developer options, and confirm that the OEM unlocking option is still enabled. You can now install unofficial images in download mode,:D. Read on the rest of this guide.

Install Magisk in Recovery

To boot to a system using Magisk, you will have to enter recovery every time. Since both Magisk and recovery are in the same partition, what you end up when entering recovery is determined by how long you press Volume Up button.

Once you install Magisk to the recovery partition, by default it will enter the system with Magisk enabled. If you want to boot into recovery mode, continue holding the Volume Up button until you see the recovery screen.

After your Galaxy S10 is unlocked the bootloader, you will see the following splash screen every time your phone reboots.

Instructions to root Galaxy S10

After you read all the above information, follow the instructions below:

  • Download the firmware for your phone. You can get it from this post
  • Once done, unzip the firmware and copy the AP tar file to the internal storage. It’s usually AP_[device_model_sw_ver].tar.md5
  • Install Magisk Manager from the Canary Channel
  • In Magisk Manager by selecting Install → Install → Select and Patch a File
  • Browse to the AP tar file and Magisk Manager will store the output to Download/magisk_patched.tar
  • Copy the tar file to into your computer and boot your Galaxy S10 into Download mode.
  • Flash tar in AP box

Important: Uncheck “Auto Reboot” in the Options tab.

  • Click on Start and Magisk is now successfully flashed on your phone.
  • Boot your phone into stock recovery to factory reset your device.
  • Make a full wipe data. To do so, press Power + Volume Down buttons to exit download mode. When the screen turns off, quickly press Power + Bixby + Volume Up at once to boot into recovery partition. From the stock recovery menu, select Wipe data/factory reset to erase everything on your phone.
  • Now, boot to the system with Magisk. Choose Reboot system now, and quickly press Power + Bixby + Volume Up When you see the bootloader warning screen, release all of them to boot to the system.
  • Your phone will now reboot for the first boot, which is normal and is done by design.
  • Once your Galaxy S10 is booted up, complete the initial setup.
  • The Magisk Manager app is now in your app drawer. If not, you can manually install the APK downloaded and then continue to the next step.
  • Magisk Manager will require you to do additional setups. Let it do the job and your device will automatically reboot.

That’s done! Enjoy Magisk root on your Galaxy S10 🙂

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