So I recently got a Xoom and would like to root it. I can easily search through forums and follow instructions, but I want to be sure on what I have to do. I've rooted and flashed several Android devices already, so I'm no newbie, but once I bricked an Atrix so since then I've always been super cautious.
So now.. how do I root and install CWM on the Xoom? It's on 4.0.4 OTA.
Do I have to unlock the bootloader first?
Specific references to threads and step by step instructions preferred. Thank you!
xFrozen said:
So I recently got a Xoom and would like to root it. I can easily search through forums and follow instructions, but I want to be sure on what I have to do. I've rooted and flashed several Android devices already, so I'm no newbie, but once I bricked an Atrix so since then I've always been super cautious.
So now.. how do I root and install CWM on the Xoom? It's on 4.0.4 OTA.
Do I have to unlock the bootloader first?
Specific references to threads and step by step instructions preferred. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you will have to unlock first. There's a bit to set up first, but if you read the instructions and get everything you need set up in one place it's pretty easy. Also, it's actually hard to really brick a Xoom. A few have managed but it's not easy.
Try this guide...everything should still work fine, and it explains a lot
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1249798
Good luck!
Hello Everyone im new to the boards here
I'm Trying to root my Friends Xoom for him. He told me he already started the process and unlocked stuff but cant flash anything or succesfully root. I dont know what he actually did and to be honest neither does he..... * put a gun in my mouth haha*
So my question is can i just follow the guide posted and start from the very first step and redo everything and still be ok ?? He has it updated to OTA ICS 4.0.4 I found several guides for 4.0.3 but im not sure if those instructions would still work if anyone could clarify this for me i'd greatly appreciate it
okantomi said:
Yes, you will have to unlock first. There's a bit to set up first, but if you read the instructions and get everything you need set up in one place it's pretty easy. Also, it's actually hard to really brick a Xoom. A few have managed but it's not easy.
Try this guide...everything should still work fine, and it explains a lot
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1249798
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, thanks, it worked
Dooms87 said:
Hello Everyone im new to the boards here
I'm Trying to root my Friends Xoom for him. He told me he already started the process and unlocked stuff but cant flash anything or succesfully root. I dont know what he actually did and to be honest neither does he..... * put a gun in my mouth haha*
So my question is can i just follow the guide posted and start from the very first step and redo everything and still be ok ?? He has it updated to OTA ICS 4.0.4 I found several guides for 4.0.3 but im not sure if those instructions would still work if anyone could clarify this for me i'd greatly appreciate it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also had a problem after unlocking. It unlocked fine, but then I couldn't flash CWM through fastboot. My problem was the Application Variable thing, I assume. What I did was go to the platform tools folder (which for me was C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools ). I held shift and right clicked Platform Tools, then pressed "open command window here" and then I flashed CWM through fastboot in that window. Just make sure the CWM image is in the Platform Tools folder, along with fastboot.exe.
If you have any issues with that, PM me and I'll try to help.
omg Frozen thank you so most for that post i literally had the same problem CWM would not flash till i did exactly what you said in the last post thank you soo much greatly appreciated
There is one VERY important piece that is left out of most threads.
The newest Xooms that were release overwrite CWM files upon reboot unless you take specific steps to make sure it doesn't... e.g.
have the update.zip you want to use preloaded on the sdcard via pc
or
use a usb with a otg and a version of CWM that can apply update.zip from the USB drive.
Also beware of threads that dont mention what version of the OS they are for. For example its very easy to root your device, but it be on an on 3.x OS and then the OS will update it to 4.04 on the next boot cycle, and wont give you a chance to pick your ROM update. As a result your device is not rooted at this point, and CWM is not installed because you didnt have root in time to move these files:
adb shell mv /system/recovery-from-boot.p.old /system/recovery-from-boot.p
adb shell mv /system/etc/install-recovery.sh.old /system/etc/install-recovery.sh
while in root.
Really sucks.
So in a nutshell those with the latest Xoom tablets that were released, must make sure you find a update.zip that is compatible with ICS 4.04 and then get it to your SDCARD or USB Drive via any method possible - and then flash the right CWM that supports what you want to do, then catch that as it reboots the very first time but pushing the down button and then up button of the volume controls, and then you can install the root (update.zip).... then if all is well you will be able to boot normally, and then go back and get into CWM and install the ROM of your delight.
Experts feel free to chime in so I don't mislead anyone. I wouldn't follow the above advice until an expert puts their AOK on it.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1242241
Any Xoom any update BTW I had my mz601( Telstra ) on offical ics rooted by this method.
I have done a lot of reading her about rooting and updating my TF300. After getting a headspinning amount of information, I'd like someone to verify what I think I know.
I have a TF300, stock ROM, no root, running US .17. I have not received any updates after going to Settings/about tab/update and pressing the update button (I get "no updates found') I have cleared DM and CM client and rebooted several times, but no updates are found. I have tried on several WiFI networks I have access to.
1. I should be able to root using one of several one click methods I have found here, correct?
2. Once rooted and root keeper is installed, I should be able to update to .29 and keep root, correct?
3. A manual update to US .29, once rooted, will cause me to lose root, correct?
4. Will I receive Over The Air update once rooted? If not, how can I update to US .29 without losing root?
5. Is this the best path to take, or is there another path that would be easier for a newb like me (I know just enough about Android to be dangerous)? What I mean by another path is, should I manually update to US .29 and wait for a one click solution to come out later, all the while enjoying the new update.
6. All this is to fix some lag issues I have with all browsers....Tried Stock, Dolphin, Firefox, Opera...all the same. Some FC and others just hang for up to 30 seconds, even in Performance mode (With only one tab open!) So this will "FIX" those lag issues, correct?
Thank you for your time
If you're still on .17, root with sparkyroot, save it with ota rootkeeper, update to .29 (if it isn't there, they've been posted in many places on the forums), and restore root. As for fixing lag issues, it depends on what you do, rooting alone won't change anything, but you can try out the different tweaks available.
Sent from my Incredible 2 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5
Missed a couple of your questions, yes, you will still receive ota updates if you're rooted, as long as you don't unlock the bootloader. This is the easiest way to root too, all you need to do is follow sparkyroot's instructions and back up your root.
Sent from my Incredible 2 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5
One question always leads to another
Thank you! But of course, I now have just a few more questions.
I do understand rooting alone will not help me with my lag issues. I'm hoping the update to .29 will. I am not a power user, but I would like the option open to me later to install ROMs, hence why I want to root now.
1. I thought I had to unlock bootloader to root. With sparkyroot I do not?
2. Since I have not unlocked bootloader, will rooting alone void my warranty? I thinking not since I should be able to unroot with no trace, correct?
3. I thought, (or read somewhere here, I think) that if I do a MANUAL install, I would lose root and be unable to regain it. If I get an update PUSHED to me by ASUS, Ill be able to regain root with rootkeeper. Is that correct?
I'd like to thank everyone here, by the way, for all the information I have gotten in my 30 days of owning this tablet and lurking here.
Throb1231 said:
Thank you! But of course, I now have just a few more questions.
I do understand rooting alone will not help me with my lag issues. I'm hoping the update to .29 will. I am not a power user, but I would like the option open to me later to install ROMs, hence why I want to root now.
1. I thought I had to unlock bootloader to root. With sparkyroot I do not?
2. Since I have not unlocked bootloader, will rooting alone void my warranty? I thinking not since I should be able to unroot with no trace, correct?
3. I thought, (or read somewhere here, I think) that if I do a MANUAL install, I would lose root and be unable to regain it. If I get an update PUSHED to me by ASUS, Ill be able to regain root with rootkeeper. Is that correct?
I'd like to thank everyone here, by the way, for all the information I have gotten in my 30 days of owning this tablet and lurking here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need to unlock for root. They are completely unrelated. Just update manually and use THIS THREAD to root .29. There's even a one-click tool like you wanted. Don't forget to press Thanks for miloj.
Oh, and after you've updated to .29 and rooted; don't forget to use OTA rootkeeper to backup root.
If Asus releases a new update it may save your root.
EndlessDissent said:
No need to unlock for root. They are completely unrelated. Just update manually and use THIS THREAD to root .29. There's even a one-click tool like you wanted. Don't forget to press Thanks for miloj.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He's still on the .17 software, so no need to do that. Just use the sparkyroot method, backup with rootkeeper and then update.
Edit to add that no, rooting will not void the warranty, just unroot before you need to send it back.
Sent from my Incredible 2 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5
Yeah, he's still on .17, but he's not getting the OTA prompt. He wants to manually upgrade, and you can't restore root after a manual upgrade, so my advice still stands.
Thank you both! Rooted with Sparky root and backed up with OTA rootsaver. Now I have downloaded the .29 update from ASUS webpage and installed. It says I have lost root.
I tried to restore root with OTA and it says SU restored, however it does not show that I have root access. Tring to use Titanium BU also shows I do not have root.
Tried then to go back to Sparkyroot and try again, but to no avail. Do I now have to downgrade back to .17 to gain root because I messed it up, or is there a solution? I was rooted for several hours before the upgrade to .29.
Throb1231 said:
Thank you both! Rooted with Sparky root and backed up with OTA rootsaver. Now I have downloaded the .29 update from ASUS webpage and installed. It says I have lost root.
I tried to restore root with OTA and it says SU restored, however it does not show that I have root access. Tring to use Titanium BU also shows I do not have root.
Tried then to go back to Sparkyroot and try again, but to no avail. Do I now have to downgrade back to .17 to gain root because I messed it up, or is there a solution? I was rooted for several hours before the upgrade to .29.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you need to go to:
h tt p://forum.xda-developers.c om/showthread.php?t=1704209 (sorry for the chopped up link. I can't post links yet)
and root again.
EndlessDissent said:
Yeah, he's still on .17, but he's not getting the OTA prompt. He wants to manually upgrade, and you can't restore root after a manual upgrade, so my advice still stands.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, ok. Didn't realize you couldn't restore if you updated manually.
Yes, it is as I thought. Tried Sparkys and miloj's root program and I can not get root. I ran the program twice from my lap top. Driver's for TF300 show installed in Device manager (Windows 7). ASUS sync was installed in laptop and recognized TF300 but the program was not running during root attempt.
When I run Superuser and attempt to update SU binaries, I get "Failed" when it attempts pathway to write update.
Attempted to restore using OTA rootkeeper but all I get is "SU Restored". Check boxes indicate no root.
Any other ideas?
Confirmed I am on .29 from a MANUAL update.
Tried again from home computer. Ran Sparky and miloj program. I get error stating
"failed to copy 'Superuser.apk' to '/data/local/tmp/Superuser.apk' : not a directory"
Tablet reboots and says I should be rooted but obviously not. Superuser not written to tablet
Throb1231 said:
Tried again from home computer. Ran Sparky and miloj program. I get error stating
"failed to copy 'Superuser.apk' to '/data/local/tmp/Superuser.apk' : not a directory"
Tablet reboots and says I should be rooted but obviously not. Superuser not written to tablet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you just install Superuser from the market? The su binaries might be there and the app just isn't installing. I may be wrong, not sure how the automated program works, but it can't hurt.
Just tried that. Installs fine but when I try to update binaries, I get error writing to filepath, telling me there is no root. I'm hoping this makes 10 posts for me so I can actually go to Sparky's thread in Dev. forum and ask directly. Thanks for your help tho. Ill still be monitoring here if anyone has a solution
Throb1231 said:
Just tried that. Installs fine but when I try to update binaries, I get error writing to filepath, telling me there is no root. I'm hoping this makes 10 posts for me so I can actually go to Sparky's thread in Dev. forum and ask directly. Thanks for your help tho. Ill still be monitoring here if anyone has a solution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try manually doing the code from miloj's thread?
While the instructions in his thread are clear, they are way past my level of expertise. I would not attempt it without someone standing next to me. I have not entered code since the 1980's Compute! magazine days.
Throb1231 said:
While the instructions in his thread are clear, they are way past my level of expertise. I would not attempt it without someone standing next to me. I have not entered code since the 1980's Compute! magazine days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I can't think of anything else, you could just use the downgrade method, that's easy enough. The code really is just copy/paste though.
Throb1231 said:
Just tried that. Installs fine but when I try to update binaries, I get error writing to filepath, telling me there is no root. I'm hoping this makes 10 posts for me so I can actually go to Sparky's thread in Dev. forum and ask directly. Thanks for your help tho. Ill still be monitoring here if anyone has a solution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your problem is not with the superuser apk.
The actual root is when you write an "su" binary to system and makes it executable (there is some access control stuff in between, but it's what's happening in essence).
So - your trouble is not with the installation nor the messages from superuser.apk - it's with the actual rooting method.
Make absolutely sure your adb drivers are working and that you've got the files "debugfs", "su" and the other debugfs file on top of the .bat file, which is the installation script, in the same directory whilst running the .bat file.
Agreed. I posted this in development.
It was surprisingly more difficult to install the drivers correctly than anticipated.
For those noobs like me, here's a step-by-step for installing the drivers before running the root method.
http://transformerprimeroot.com/tra...all-transformer-prime-usb-drivers-on-windows/
Please note that before using the step-by-step guide above, I also had to put the tf300 in Camera Mount to even get the "“ASUS Android Composite ADB Interface" option to show up in Device Manager.
Once you get this far, you can manually update the driver (found in the sparkym3 "Drivers" folder from the download) via the step-by-step.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using XDA
Hey guys I have been searching all over the place for this answer and I just cant seem to find anything on the topic.
This is my first time tinkering with my HTC One X (old version 4.0.3) and downloaded the most updated drivers which is where I believe I went wrong.
I have the 4.2.0.001 drivers and when I open the root.zip file nothing happens I get no errors I just get the "your HTC One X is rooted..." yet my phone simply doesn't reboot.
So I attempted to install the downgraded drivers the 3.0.0.007 which looking back has been the recommended drivers, however; when I extract those files and head into my device manager it does not pull up the androidusb.inf file to upload the 3.0.0.007 drivers.
Am I missing a proper BMP USB Driver and where can I find it? Or is there a root file that will work with the 4.2.0.001 drivers?
If there is any link to this topic please post it, I am very new to rooting or if I have made any mistakes please let me know.
social_spider said:
Hey guys I have been searching all over the place for this answer and I just cant seem to find anything on the topic.
This is my first time tinkering with my HTC One X (old version 4.0.3) and downloaded the most updated drivers which is where I believe I went wrong.
I have the 4.2.0.001 drivers and when I open the root.zip file nothing happens I get no errors I just get the "your HTC One X is rooted..." yet my phone simply doesn't reboot.
So I attempted to install the downgraded drivers the 3.0.0.007 which looking back has been the recommended drivers, however; when I extract those files and head into my device manager it does not pull up the androidusb.inf file to upload the 3.0.0.007 drivers.
Am I missing a proper BMP USB Driver and where can I find it? Or is there a root file that will work with the 4.2.0.001 drivers?
If there is any link to this topic please post it, I am very new to rooting or if I have made any mistakes please let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Drivers are drivers. You can root with either. Old new, doesn't matter. It just allows your phone to be recognized by fastboot and ADB, that's all.
exad said:
Drivers are drivers. You can root with either. Old new, doesn't matter. It just allows your phone to be recognized by fastboot and ADB, that's all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you :good: so this means its something wrong with the root.zip file or the process Im doing to root? I just attempted it a few seconds ago this time the phone rebooted 2 times but I am not seeing any Su app on my phone
social_spider said:
Thank you :good: so this means its something wrong with the root.zip file or the process Im doing to root? I just attempted it a few seconds ago this time the phone rebooted 2 times but I am not seeing any Su app on my phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The root methods simply give you temp root and super cid so you can unlock the bootloader. *facepalm*
Then when your bootloader is unlocked you can flash recovery and then flash su through recovery or install a custom rom which will already be rooted.
exad said:
The root methods simply give you temp root and super cid so you can unlock the bootloader. *facepalm*
Then when your bootloader is unlocked you can flash recovery and then flash su through recovery or install a custom rom which will already be rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
damn im an idiot haha thank you for clearing this up
I guess I am not understanding the core concept here, so I now I theoretically have a temp root with Super CID. I was under the impression that I was supposed to download Titanium Backup before attempting to unlock the bootloader. So I went to download and it told me I did not have root access so I could not run Titanium. I am afraid to attempt a bootloader unlock with out my rom being backed up. Can you please shed some light on this or post a link that would explain the process after temp root in detail thank you
social_spider said:
I guess I am not understanding the core concept here, so I now I theoretically have a temp root with Super CID. I was under the impression that I was supposed to download Titanium Backup before attempting to unlock the bootloader. So I went to download and it told me I did not have root access so I could not run Titanium. I am afraid to attempt a bootloader unlock with out my rom being backed up. Can you please shed some light on this or post a link that would explain the process after temp root in detail thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can backup after your bootloader is unlocked.. bootloader unlock is just a flag that allows you to flash certain partitions like recovery.
Backing up before or after will make no difference. If you end up really messing up your device, a backup won't save you anyway so I don't see why you'd be worried. If you S-OFF, you can RUU to get back to stock any time no problem, unless you full on brick. Then only jtagg will save you.
Typically before I root a phone, I read all the stickies in all the subsections to understand how things work since every phone has differences, some subtle some not so subtle.
exad said:
You can backup after your bootloader is unlocked.. bootloader unlock is just a flag that allows you to flash certain partitions like recovery.
Backing up before or after will make no difference. If you end up really messing up your device, a backup won't save you anyway so I don't see why you'd be worried. If you S-OFF, you can RUU to get back to stock any time no problem, unless you full on brick. Then only jtagg will save you.
Typically before I root a phone, I read all the stickies in all the subsections to understand how things work since every phone has differences, some subtle some not so subtle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much before I unlock Im gonna hit the stickies and make sure I completely understand everything :good:
I need some help guys, im not a tech savy but i ended up rooting my shield just for the deleting sd card files but now i dont think i want it anymore. i rather have the OTAs.
but here is the catch, i really dont know how to start, i cant find the image anywhere for recovery, i dont know how to flash it, tried to delete super user but now it crashes, cant reboot in recovery mode...
is there someone who can help me out there?
This might help you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT82lX40fuc
Also, just deleting the app doesnt take root away. For that you need to flash the stock image, but if you want to keep root and get otas , do the guide on the link i sent you.
thank you
resolved, one thousand thanks would not be enough...