So you may have already tried rooting your new KitKat firmware using the old method but you have ended up with just seeing the Samsung logo. Since the old rooting method required you to flash an insecure kernel, putting a kernel based off Jelly Bean into the new KitKat firmware would definitely not give you good results.
Also please keep in mind that the downloads included in this post are meant strictly for the GT-I9195 model only. You can check the Rooting category for guides on how to root the GT-I9190 and GT-I9192 (just make sure that the post begins with "(KitKat)" otherwise it is meant for Jelly Bean and you should not try it!).
Pre-requisites:
- You need your USB cable
- Samsung USB drivers - A simple installation of Samsung Kies should take care of that.
- Odin 3.07 - Click here.
- CWM Recovery 6.0.4.8 - Click here.
- RootKit - Click here.
Rooting GT-I9195 running KitKat:
- Download the RootKit zip file and transfer it to your sdcard
- Download the CWM Recovery .tar.md5 file to your computer
- Power off your phone
- Hold the Volume down + Home + Power buttons together to boot into Download mode
- Now press the Volume up button to have it display the text "Downloading..."
- Start the Odin program
- Click on the PDA field and choose the CWM Recovery .tar.md5 file and leave the rest of the options as they are.
- Before you click on the Start button, grab your phone and be ready to hold the Volume up + Home keys.
- Now click on the Start button and the transfer should begin. It should take just a few seconds and as soon as the screen goes black, hold the Volume up + Home keys as already mentioned in step 8
- You should now be in CWM Recovery. Choose install zip
- Then choose choose zip from /storage/sdcard1/
- Now choose the S4Mini_RootKit_v2.zip file
- Choose Yes to confirm when asked
- After the zip file has been flashed, go back and choose reboot system now.
- You should now be rooted. Have fun!