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Root A guide to how to Root the Nexus One w/video

ztmike

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2010
125
2
Indiana
Kinda surprised nobody has posted this yet. Anyway this guide isn't mine but its pretty good guide to follow for noobs.

First..you will need to unlock the Nexus Ones bootloader (doing this voids the warranty) Guide here:
How To: Root the Nexus One (Updated 01.11.10) | The Unlockr

Disable any kind of adblocker so the how-to video comes up (it loads in the black window at top) For me..I had to disable adblockplus on Firefox.

Then once that is done, you then can save a recovery file to your N1/load your custom rom.
Guide here:
How To: Load a Custom ROM on the Nexus One (Updated 1.11.10) | The Unlockr

You will need your computer to be able to recognize the Nexus One for all this to work..

You can either do it this way (which I believe just installs the USB drivers)
Getting Nexus One ADB/USB Mount working (Driver) - xda-developers

Or you can download the Android SDK
Android SDK | Android Developers

Once installed, I clicked on "download ALL updates" so I would recommend doing that just to be safe.

Please keep questions like "what does rooting bring" this thread is for a how to guide only.
 
I forgot to add that you might come across 2 problems, the first major one is if once you got it rooted and rom installed and everything and you go to reboot the phone and if it gets stuck at the loading screen..you got a corrupted rom download..so do the same step as you did when you installed the Rom but delete the rom off the phones sd card and re-download the rom again and go through the same step of putting the rom back on the sd card. (but with doing a wipe before installing new rom)

The other problem that you will more than likely run into is the Google apps not being installed, on this link:
[ROM] CyanogenMod-5 for Nexus One (STABLE) [02/14/2010 / 5.0.2] - xda-developers

Choose the download where it says Google Addon, the direct link is
gapps-passion-ERE36B-2-signed.zip and put the Zip file of that directly on the phones sd card..don't put it into a folder (you also don't put the rom in any folder)

(That link might get deleted though)

This is for the CyanogenMod..the Google Apps addon might be different if you chose the "MoDaCo Enhanced rom"

MY advice is just go with the CyanogenMod rom.
 
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eh. the issue i'm coming across is with driver support with vista64. i can't seem to find a driver that will support the phone for this os. probably going to have to wait till monday and root @ work. i've been trying all day on my desktop and laptop. neither appear to like the drivers.

The androidsdk program should work fine as windows 7 works the same.
 
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eh. the issue i'm coming across is with driver support with vista64. i can't seem to find a driver that will support the phone for this os. probably going to have to wait till monday and root @ work. i've been trying all day on my desktop and laptop. neither appear to like the drivers.

Drivers are fine on Win7x64, so really shouldn't be different in Vista.
 
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i mean, whenever i plug in the phone, it asks me to install the drivers. i've dl'ed some from modaco but they didn't take, and it ends up asking me to insert the "disk" that came w the nexus one. we all know the problem with that. i looked at the sdk link that someone posted, but i'm an android n00b. i'm not really getting what i'm looking at there. it looks like mostly dev stuff.
 
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Sorry for a noob question. Whats rooting for? Can anybody enlighten me? Thanks. Im new to Andriod...

rooting gives enables you to put custom "roms" or images on your phone. basically a custom version of your current os, or a totally different os all together. someone else mentioned dual booting, and although i havent read about it being done on the n1, i have heard of it being done w android on a nokia device... i suppose if you were knowledgeable enough...

i am not ;)
 
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i looked at the sdk link that someone posted, but i'm an android n00b. i'm not really getting what i'm looking at there. it looks like mostly dev stuff.

Read what I posted..you download the androidsdk program and do "all updates" when that's installed. This will let your computer recognize the nexus one which you will need it to do to root.
 
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rooting gives enables you to put custom "roms" or images on your phone. basically a custom version of your current os, or a totally different os all together. someone else mentioned dual booting, and although i havent read about it being done on the n1, i have heard of it being done w android on a nokia device... i suppose if you were knowledgeable enough...

i am not ;)

I don't own an Andriod device yet. Waiting for X10... I suppose X10 is able to root???

Am I right to say it's equivalent to Iphone's jailbreaking?
 
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Sort of, except for a difference in attitude and the extent of what rooting gives you. Apple hates jailbreakers with a great, burning passion. Google... made rooting easier than ever before with the N1. Moreover, an Android phone out of the box will let you do nearly everything you can with a jailbroken iPhone.
 
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Sort of, except for a difference in attitude and the extent of what rooting gives you. Apple hates jailbreakers with a great, burning passion. Google... made rooting easier than ever before with the N1. Moreover, an Android phone out of the box will let you do nearly everything you can with a jailbroken iPhone.

Ok... So by rooting the Nexus, what am I able to achieve? Getting free paid apps, etc????

Sorry. I'm really new to Andriod....:D
 
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You don't get free paid apps, no--but paid apps have been pirated and are available if you care to look for them; you can also install them on a stock Android phone without root access required.

Rooting lets you change the ROM, essentially the OS, which allows you to flash, say, HTC's Sense UI onto your Nexus One, or flash the X10's Timescape onto your Desire, and so on and so forth. Many custom ROMs also enable apps2sd (lets you install apps to the SD card, freeing internal storage), himem/.32 kernel (lets your phone use more of its memory), and fixes some of the issues found on stock phones (louder volume hack, for example). Oh, and of course you can get updates ahead of time. It's how some Droids already run Android 2.1. There's even a 2.1 ROM for the Hero, I think.
 
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You don't get free paid apps, no--but paid apps have been pirated and are available if you care to look for them; you can also install them on a stock Android phone without root access required.

Rooting lets you change the ROM, essentially the OS, which allows you to flash, say, HTC's Sense UI onto your Nexus One, or flash the X10's Timescape onto your Desire, and so on and so forth. Many custom ROMs also enable apps2sd (lets you install apps to the SD card, freeing internal storage), himem/.32 kernel (lets your phone use more of its memory), and fixes some of the issues found on stock phones (louder volume hack, for example). Oh, and of course you can get updates ahead of time. It's how some Droids already run Android 2.1. There's even a 2.1 ROM for the Hero, I think.

Grainysand, thanks for the insight. By your posts, I've got an impression of what's rooting all about. Is it dangerous to root? Will I be able to un-root it? I would love to have some pirated paid ROMs in my phone, just that I don't know where to start looking for them...:D

1 main issue is that the Nexus 1's volume is not loud & I love to have my volume loud...

Seems like I do need alot of work understanding Android:p
 
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I forgot to add that you might come across 2 problems, the first major one is if once you got it rooted and rom installed and everything and you go to reboot the phone and if it gets stuck at the loading screen..you got a corrupted rom download..so do the same step as you did when you installed the Rom but delete the rom off the phones sd card and re-download the rom again and go through the same step of putting the rom back on the sd card.

The other problem that you will more than likely run into is the Google apps not being installed, on this link:
[ROM] CyanogenMod-5 for Nexus One (STABLE) [02/14/2010 / 5.0.2] - xda-developers

Choose the download where it says Google Addon, the direct link is
gapps-passion-ERE36B-2-signed.zip and put the Zip file of that directly on the phones sd card..don't put it into a folder (you also don't put the rom in any folder)

(That link might get deleted though)

This is for the CyanogenMod..the Google Apps addon might be different if you chose the "MoDaCo Enhanced rom"

MY advice is just go with the CyanogenMod rom.

i must say that if you have a corrupted rom you also need to do a wipe before you delete and re-download the rom and do the same steps again.
 
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im scared to try this lol

Nah, it's a piece of cake once you've done it the first time. If all else goes wrong, just wipe and restore backup. You don't like the ROM you're using, wipe and flash another one--the folk at xda-developers have made it really, really easy even for beginners. You just need to familiarize yourself a little with some adb commands.
 
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Different customizations and optimizations. Some of them look different and come with their own boot animations, graphical modifications, preinstalled apps. Some have himem kernels, some have the real .32 kernel, some don't; some enable apps2sd out of the box, and others might not. Even the three currently available Desire ROMs aren't identical. Etc.
 
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Different customizations and optimizations. Some of them look different and come with their own boot animations, graphical modifications, preinstalled apps. Some have himem kernels, some have the real .32 kernel, some don't; some enable apps2sd out of the box, and others might not. Even the three currently available Desire ROMs aren't identical. Etc.

can you break this down into some n00b language?

i wondered this when looking over modaco. what are himem kernels?
i'm assuming that apps2sd means the ability to fully utilize your SD card, ie run apps from it, and not be limited to your phones internal memory(yuck).

you also mention that the three desire ROMS are different. are you aware of what the differences are? since this rom is generating a huge amount of interest, people are going to want to be as well educated as possible.

on that note, i just got that pesky driver installed finally. going to try to root one final time on this machine before i give up and go get a netbook!
 
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