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Root Motorola Devour - Root Attained, Thanks rainabba. ADB and SHELL with SU, and /system mounted as R/W.

ZanzDroid

Lurker
Apr 16, 2010
3
8
Many, Many Thanks to Sebastian Kramer, birdman, [mbm], and rainabba for the Original Version of this guide, and tools needed.
(I found all of the information to get started with this on http://alldroid.org)

Download link is at the bottom, READ THE GUIDE FIRST!

This download has different su/Superuser.apk files than the one for the Droid X, as they didn't work on the Devour.
I also included a basic passwd and group file, so the "whoami" command would work.
The last additional command I added was "remount", so you can enter "remount rw" to enable read/write on /system,
and "remount ro" to set it back to read-only.

REMEMBER I DIDN'T COME UP WITH THIS ORIGINALLY - I ONLY MODIFIED IT FOR THE DEVOUR!

(Run means type the command in quotes [but not the quotes] then press the Enter key)


  1. Download the archive and expand it to a folder you can find (eg. c:\exploid_devour)
  2. Set up ADB for your Devour. Motorola Drivers are HERE.
  3. On the phone: Home, Menu Button, Settings, Applications, Development: Make sure the "USB debugging" option is enabled/checked.
  4. Status bar, USB connection: Make sure "Motorola PC Tools" is selected.
  5. Open a command prompt (Windows: Start, Run, "cmd", OK; Linux: Terminal)
  6. Run "adb devices". If you don't see your device listed under "List of devices attached", return to step 2 and follow the link to setup ADB drivers.
  7. Run "cd c:\exploid_devour" (or where ever you expanded the archive)
  8. Run "adb push Superuser.apk /sdcard/"
  9. Run "adb push su /sdcard/"
  10. Run "adb push passwd /sdcard/"
  11. Run "adb push group /sdcard/"
  12. Run "adb push busybox /sdcard/"
  13. Run "adb push remount /sdcard/"
  14. Run "adb push exploid /sqlite_stmt_journals/"
  15. Run "adb shell"
  16. Run "cd sqlite_stmt_journals"
  17. Run "chmod 755 exploid"
  18. On your phone, Under Settings -> Display and Security, set the Screen Timeout to 15 seconds.
  19. Wait for the screen to go black.
  20. WITHIN FOUR SECONDS after executing the next step, Press the Power Button to wake up the screen.
  21. Run "./exploid"
  22. Press the Power Button on the Top of your Devour, to wake up screen WITHIN FOUR SECONDS.
  23. Wait until you're back at a shell ($) prompt.
  24. Run "rootshell". You'll be prompted for a password.
    If you see "rootshell: permission denied", you didn't wake the screen up quick enough. Go back to Step 21, Run "./exploid", and try again!
  25. At the prompt, enter the password "secretlol" and press Enter, you are now root! (You'll know because your prompt will now be a "#" instead of "$")
  26. Run "cat /sdcard/busybox > /system/xbin/busybox"
  27. Run "chmod 4755 /system/xbin/busybox"
  28. Run "busybox --install /system/xbin/"
  29. Run "cp /sdcard/Superuser.apk /system/app/"
  30. Run "cp /sdcard/su /system/bin/"
  31. Run "cp /sdcard/remount /system/xbin/"
  32. Run "cp /sdcard/passwd /system/etc/"
  33. Run "cp /sdcard/group /system/etc/"
  34. Run "chmod 4755 /system/bin/su"
  35. Run "chmod 755 /system/xbin/remount"
  36. Run "chmod 644 /system/app/Superuser.apk"
  37. Run "chmod 644 /system/etc/passwd"
  38. Run "chmod 644 /system/etc/group"
  39. Run "rm /system/bin/rootshell"
  40. Run "exit" to drop from root to a non-root user shell (on phone still)
  41. Run "exit" to drop back to your machine command prompt (instead of phone)
To Confirm root is established:
  1. Run "adb shell"
  2. Run "su"
  3. Watch your screen so you can click the allow button for Superuser root access. (now you should see the # sign, instead of the $ sign, which indicates you are root)

You're done! Feel free to kill the bloatware, Blur, and whatever else. Root apps will now run fine. I've successfully tested Root Explorer, Titanium Backup, AdFree Android, and others.

Credits
  • Sebastian Kramer for this blog post - http://c-skills.blogspot...07/android-trickery.html
  • Birdman - for editing Sebastians work for the droidx
  • [mbm] - for answering birdmans many questions while root was tried (and failed xD)
  • rainabba - for writing the original guide for the Droid X, which is the only thing I modified, in addition to some different files.

The blog list

File was too large (1.05mb) to attach here. Click HERE for the zip file. Or type the following URL into your browser:

ZanzDroid, aka Zanzibar
 
I just successfully rooted my Devour. Finally!!! I personally used the directions from TechJournal but still had to deviate from them for success.

I first downloaded the android sdk from google. I extracted the file to the c: directory.
Follow directions 1-5 from above.
In the command prompt if you extracted the sdk to the c: directory, type: cd c:\android-sdk-windows\tools and press enter then type: abd devices
Your phone should be listed as A555.
Skip step 7.
On steps 8-14: stay in the c:\android-sdk-windows\tools directory and when selecting the file to push reference the file's location.
EX: adb push c:\Devour_root\Superuser.apk /sdcard/Superuser.apk
 
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Ok so I got my Devour last month, and I am so glad there is a root now.. Just some questions. I am new to android, and I am definitely new to the rooting process. The only hacking I have done before is loading a PSP with custom process. The only hacking I have done before is loading a PSP with custom firmware. This seems like the same concept, but it seems a bit more nvolved. So here are my questions 1) what are the odds of me screwing up and bricking my phone? Anyway to fix it if this does happen? 2) if I decide for some crazy reason I want to revert my phone back to unrooted, how would I do that, and how easy would it be? 3) after rooting, will it be possible to upgrade to eclair or froyo?
 
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Devour rooted successfully!

Already renaming Verizon Bloatware from *.apk to *.bak.

Items renamed already:
VCastMusic.apk (VCast Music)
VZNav.apk (VZ Navigator)
MusicSync.apk (VCast Music Sync)
VCastVideos.apk (VCast Videos)
HelpCenter-release.apk (Help Center)
VpnServices.apk (Virtual Private Network)

I can't figure out which is Visual Voicemail and Media Share. Any help?
 
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Devour rooted successfully!

Already renaming Verizon Bloatware from *.apk to *.bak.

Items renamed already:
VCastMusic.apk (VCast Music)
VZNav.apk (VZ Navigator)
MusicSync.apk (VCast Music Sync)
VCastVideos.apk (VCast Videos)
HelpCenter-release.apk (Help Center)
VpnServices.apk (Virtual Private Network)

I can't figure out which is Visual Voicemail and Media Share. Any help?

Visual Voicemail is VVM.apk or something like that. I'm not sure about the Media Share. Also, the VpnServices had nothing to do with Verizon per se, as this is what is needed to connect to VPN's, such as the one I have at work. If you don't need VPN, then it's fine to alter.

Also, would you be able to copy the GMail.apk and GMail.odex files and PM them to me. I accidentally overwrote them (before renaming) with ones from another phone, and now neither work properly.

Thanks,

Tithefug
 
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so...i cant do this with windows 7? ive done sum searching around and dled the drivers for adb but it won't work cause it says "theres a newer version of this program already installed" wtf.

It works on windows 7. Take the adb files and put them in a folder under c:\. Then use the command prompt to navigate to it.

example: cd \androidSDK\tools

You will also put the devour_root files in the tools folder. The tools folder will be located with adb.
 
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I've been able to attain root access, but when I try to run "busybox --install /system/xbin/ I'm told that none of the files exist, and when I try to run the cp commands after that, I'm told "cp: not found". Any help would be much appreciated!

*edit*

I was able, using the link provided farther up the page, to obtain Superuser access. My questions now are as follows: is it now possible to get a working version of 2.1 or 2.2 on the phone, and how would I go about deleting/disabling bloatware/BLUR/etc?
 
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It works on windows 7. Take the adb files and put them in a folder under c:\. Then use the command prompt to navigate to it.

example: cd \androidSDK\tools

You will also put the devour_root files in the tools folder. The tools folder will be located with adb.


it won't let me dl the adb...cause there is no windows 7 version...so i dl the 64 bit version for vista and when i try to install it it says there is already a newer version of this software on the pc, which there isn't.
 
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ok this will be my first root [the devour)...i have everything downloaded and im stuck at setting up adb.

its says to go to device manager and everything and go to the adb file...but my device manager isnt showing a adb file can anyone please help me i can not stand that the devour isnt getting any further updates so that sucks bad

any help will be greatly appreciated
im extremely stressed out from trying to root my phone...from uninstalling everything reinstalling everything changing the usb ports..ive looked all over google for a solution but nothing pops up.

moomoodino
 
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This worked great in general but I encountered two problems...fortunately I found solutions/workarounds for both:

1. I'm on a Mac, so I skipped the part about the Windows drivers, but at first the adb push command wouldn't work for me, and I realized it's because the SD card was coming up as read-only. So I reformatted the SD card (MS-DOS FAT) in disk utility.

Later on, I couldn't seem to access any files from /sdcard using the adb shell. It turns out the reason was that when I connected the phone to my computer I selected "Manage memory card," which I guess means Mac OS took control of the drive and it was unavailable to adb. So I chose "modem mode" instead and it worked.

2. When I ran the command:
busybox --install /system/xbin/

I got a bunch of "no such file or directory" errors.

I found a workaround on this page:
Extending Android's shell with BusyBox | Novoda

..the important part of which is to run:
export PATH=/data/busybox:$PATH
busybox

Then just prefix all the cp commands with busybox, like this:

busybox cp /sdcard/Superuser.apk /system/app/

Now on to upgrading the Android OS...
 
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