mundele

I have a OG Droid that I’d like to root.

I’ve read a bit of the forums and I guess I’m still unclear on some things. A lot of posts are kind of old and I don't know if I'm getting the latest and greatest info.

Is there any way I can back up my phone before I root it? I want to be able to restore it if things go wrong or I need to revert back.

Or, do I have to root it and then make a backup after that point, so I have a restore point if anything goes bad post-root?

Is there anything I need to be aware of since my phone is running 2.2.3? It seems like there are some security issues around that version which would prevent me from rooting.

Is this way:

Rooting the Droid without rsd lite up to and including FRG83D

the best method to root my phone, or would it be faster/easier to use superoneclick?

What’s a good ROM to start with?

I’m a little nervous since this is my only phone and I REALLY don’t want to brick it.

I’m running 2.2.3, build FRK76.

istolvampire

There are ways to backup most things pre root but I just can't think of the apps right now.

I will let someone else chime in on rooting 2.2.3 as i have never done this.

Once rooted you can make a copy/backup of the entire phone in case you screw something up playing around.

As far as roms it really is a personal thing. Just root and make a backup and try a few. Nothing to lose at that point.

Hopefully someone will help you with the info on rooting 2.2.3 soon. If not I will help you as much as I can. They might know the apps I can't think of right now. Sorry, been a long day.

mundele

Thanks for the response. Any help you can offer is much appreciated.

Anybody out there who can help with rooting 2.2.3?

benwalburn

SOC should work in rageagainstthecage mode, or you can use Rooting the Droid without rsd lite up to and including FRG83D

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(Insert sarcastic comment here)

teddyearp

mudele; the method you mentioned in your op and then relinked by the last poster is one of the most up-to-date methods to root the A855 (OG Droid). Rooting the phone in and of itself shouldn't result in the need for a backup to restore to; the A855 is pretty much un-brickable.

However, this other method:

[HACKS] Root Droid 1 - regardless of OS version

will offer for you exactly what you want, as in the first part it flashes a custom recovery (SPRecovery) which will allow you to make a backup of your phone before you actually apply through said custom recovery the file(s) that root it.

Read carefully and you will see what I mean.

good luck

__________________
Motorola A855 Guides
Droid files
Samsung i515 files

mundele

Thanks, everyone, for the help.

teddyearp, I followed the [HACKS] Root Droid 1 - regardless of OS version process and got through it okay until I hit step 16. Then I got the following error:

E: Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (or /dev/block/mmcblk)
(No such file or directory)
E: Can't mount SDCARD:update.zip
Installation aborted.

I looked through some of the thread from that link (whew, 156 pages?) and saw a few other people had a similar problem but I didn't see a good resolution.

Any help? I made sure that Mount /sdcard and Enable USB Mass Storage were showing under the mount options.

teddyearp

That message is caused by this:
And I got your PM this morning, I tend to go to bed pretty early. Unfortunately, by now, you'll probably have to start over, since I am sure you have booted your phone by now. This method will not work if you boot your phone normally after flashing the .sbf file. You must boot into SPRecovery first and apply that file as in steps 13-16 otherwise the custom recovery is overwritten. The file will fail if you still have stock recovery.

good luck

mundele

Thanks. I tried repeating the entire process a few times on Friday night (starting over from stock recovery each time), and also saw these tips in the guide...

...so I made sure I had taken care of these things.

Still no luck, and I tried again tonight. Steps 1-15 go fine, but 16 doesn't.

I tried switching the SD card and USB mass storage on and off in SPRecovery, and removing the .zip file extension from the update file on the off chance that I was not displaying file extensions, but no go.

SPRecovery is obviously getting installed, right. Is there something else I'm missing?

Thanks for any help!

teddyearp

Well, I just don't know. There is something that you must be doing wrong, but without being there to look over your sholder I don't know what it is.

You have re-iterated the things in the thread that I pointed out about making sure your sdcard is not mounted and USB Mass Storage is turned off as that is what MC1 is saying.
which means exactly that. It does not say Ensure you have mounted /sdcard.

Try printing it out and carefully checking off the exact steps as you go.

good luck

Or you can find my sig and go to my "Root any Moto A855 guide". I have the manual method to install the root files etc., but it requires adb and is much more technical.

mundele

So I was ready to give up on this and then I figured I would try it one last time. Somehow or another, I got it to work. Scout's honor, when I tried these steps the previous times I was making sure that the SDcard was not mounted and USB Mass storage was turned off.

The only thing that happened differently this time was that I think I missed pressing up on the D-pad while running that SBF file in RSD Lite. The phone rebooted back to stock. I powered it down, tried the whole process again, and it worked!

Thanks for the guide, and thanks for your help as well.

teddyearp

Good, glad you got it. And we will never know what was going wrong, but at least it all turned out right.

mundele

One other question - you mentioned earlier that this creates a backup of my phone from before I rooted it. How do I get back to that version, should I need to?

I've backed up my apps and data with titanium backup already. Does using this method mean I won't need to make a nandroid backup?

teddyearp

I'm sorry, it only gave you the opportunity to create a backup before you root. The method does not automatically do it for you. I am in such a habit of reading so much and posting so little that I assume everyone else is as well read up on the subject.

Backing up with Titanium is not the same as a nandroid backup. A nandroid backup is just like creating a system restore point on a PC. To create one with your current custom recovery (SPRecovery), you must boot into recovery manually and use the choices from there. Read around a bit, I'm sorry, I just don't have the time to spell out the steps right now.

good luck