It can be said that development on the Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III has been a struggle. What was once anticipated to be a utopia of development between the four major carriers due to having nearly identical Galaxy S III devices has been marred by the locked bootloader on the Verizon version. Understandably, this has somewhat stifled development for the device, as the other three US variants rush forward at a breakneck pace while Verizon developers are held at the starting line.

This is a problem that CMTeamEpic is looking to fix. By reviving a concept Motorola Droid RAZR members will recognize, CMTeamEpic plans to get beyond the locked bootloader using Kexec, the bootloader workaround. The premise is to install a custom kernel in such a manner that it boots from the recovery instead of from the bootloader. CMTeamEpic explains:

Also recently, we’ve finished porting kexec hardboot—a method of booting kernels through recovery without needing to flash them to the device—to the Sprint SGS3, a feature that would also enable Verizon SGS3 users to make use of custom kernels despite the locked bootloader.

Despite being a breakthrough in development, the process is far from being complete. The ability to use a custom kernel is actually successful, but there’s a few unusual problems that CMTeamEpic are running into. The most interesting of which is that, once booted with the custom recovery, using the power menu to reboot the device automatically takes users back to recovery. Additionally, Kexec for the Galaxy S III is still being touted as a proof-of-concept process, so users should definitely be cautious while using it, as there can be some serious issues. CMTeamEpic released the standard boilerplate:

This is a proof-of-concept kernel intended for developers and experienced testers. It offers no new features in addition to the stock kernel. While we don’t expect these kernel images to cause touble, improper installation of these kernel images may cause irreparable harm. Use at your own risk.

For additional discussion, check out the original thread.

That didn’t take very long, did it? Shortly after the whirlwind of fury that was Verizon customers yesterday, the development community came through and obtained root for the Verizon Galaxy S III—with no help from Verizon, we might add. The root method came just a few hours after it was discovered that conventional root methods wouldn’t work due to a security check when flashing unsigned boot and recovery images.

XDA Senior Member invisiblek posted the root method for users, but credit also goes to a number of other users and developers including Team Epic. With Verizon customers settling down for the long haul, it wasn’t expected to find root and recovery on the device so soon.

The root method still follows the basics of the root method for the other U.S. variants. Users flash a rooted system image to obtain root. And once rooted, users can push a custom recovery image via ADB. Obtaining root is said to take some time, as it takes Odin around 10 minutes to flash the rooted system, so if it seems like something is wrong just continue to wait.

For the full instructions, download links, and more, head to the original thread.

The first three U.S. Variants of the Galaxy S III were all rooted the same way. Odin flash an insecure kernel, flash custom recovery, flash Superuser, and profit. With the Verizon Galaxy S III lagging behind the rest, many users had hoped that it would be rooted in the same manner when it was finally released—if not for the fact that the other three variants were rooted that way, then because Samsung hasn’t shipped a locked down device in recent memory. Apparently, Verizon has pulled a Motorola and locked the device down, making it impervious to the traditional root methods.

The problem was first documented by XDA Senior Member AdamLange in his thread that would have been a root tutorial. After several failed attempts at flashing the insecure kernel via Odin, AdamLange and others came to the conclusion that Verizon had slipped in a security check that prevented unsigned boot and recovery images from being flashed via Odin. Given that this is the method all the other Galaxy S III variants use to obtian root, this presents a big problem.

While there will likely be a workaround to this problem as there was for those stubborn HTC devices, that doesn’t mean that users aren’t angry. With work being done to find a workaround in AdamLange’s thread, XDA Recognized Developer incubus26jc has gone another route by starting a petition.

For continued discussion on obtaining root access, check out the original thread. If you’d like to sign the petition, head to the petition thread.