[International / GSM] [HOW TO] Root the GSM/HSPA+ Samsung Galaxy Nexus

[scary alien]

when I type
adb push Superuser.apk /system/app (then hit enter)
the curser moves to the next line, but nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?
After pushing su, it returned with the speed at which it performed the taskt( I assume that's what it was saying) and then got ready for the next line of input,
but now (when pushing superuser), nothing . What gives? Please help asap?

Also, I tried just pushing su to /system/bin, and then doing the adb shell chmod for the su bin, and I got the "error: closed"

ChanceStad,

Welcome to the AndroidForums!

Couple of questions for you:

1. Which method are you using? (the first, "Manual Method"?).

2. Are you running Windows? If so, did you install any USB drivers (particularly the adb ones)?

3. Do you see your device when you issue an "adb devices" command? (that's not in my instructions at the moment, but it will be very soon ). That should help verify that you've got adb connectivity with your device.

4. Did you issue the "adb root" and "adb remount" commands before the push?

5. What state is your phone in when you are issuing the adb commands? (booted in Android?).

6. Did you enable USB debugging?

I'm guessing it might be a USB driver issue or you might not have USB debugging enabled...

Let us know.

Cheers!

 

[ChanceStad]

I ignored the problem, rebooted, and downloaded the superuser.apk from the market, and all seems to be well with my phone. yay?

 

[scary alien]

I ignored the problem, rebooted, and downloaded the superuser.apk from the market, and all seems to be well with my phone. yay?

So the push of su worked but the push of Superuser.apk didn't? Weird...

Glad you got things working, though.

Cheers!

 

[teddyearp]

Well, scary, since ChanceStad posted his fix the same time you posted your questions, your questions went unanswered, so we'll never know if it was 'weird' or the other thing.

I vote the other thing,

 

[w0bbl3r]

Hi All,

just wondering if anyone could give me a heads up as to whether there's a relatively easy to follow tool/guide they might have seen, to root the GN using a Mac.

Fairly noobish, but i did root and flash my HTC desire a few times.

Thanks for your time

edit- see there's some mac terminal instructions in the original post which were "hidden" so didn't show up in my search of the page, apologies. Not exactly comfy with terminal stuff but if that's the state of affairs so be it!

 

[scary alien]

Hi All,

just wondering if anyone could give me a heads up as to whether there's a relatively easy to follow tool/guide they might have seen, to root the GN using a Mac.

Fairly noobish, but i did root and flash my HTC desire a few times.

Thanks for your time

Hey there, w0bbl3r, if you've got a Mac, you've really got a leg-up on most folks because you won't have to deal with USB driver issues like the Microsoft Windows folks will.

The first post in this thread does have three different methods that will accommodate Mac, Linxu, and Windows. The basic steps for rooting are all the same, regardless of your PC's platform version:

• download root binaries (su / Superuser.apk) and unsecured boot image
• unlock the bootloader via fastboot oem unlock (warning: wipes device!)
• boot the unsecured boot image (so you can remount /system in read/write mode)
• install the root binaries (su / Superuser.apk) to the phone
• reboot and enjoy root

I have read about a one-click app that will root, but I don't think it's Mac-based.

Let us know if you have any specific questions about the instructions.

Cheers!

 

[w0bbl3r]

Thanks very much for the reply,

I have downloaded the needed files, but i'm completely not confident to use terminal commands! I think if i remember correctly this is why my desire remained unrooted for a few months, they eventually found a way to do it that didn't require it! I think as much as i miss ad-free, i'll wait in hope!

 

[John Markley]

Thanks very much for the reply,

I have downloaded the needed files, but i'm completely not confident to use terminal commands! I think if i remember correctly this is why my desire remained unrooted for a few months, they eventually found a way to do it that didn't require it! I think as much as i miss ad-free, i'll wait in hope!

It's good to be able to use the command line Terminal app on Mac. There is an excellent ebook in the "Take Control of.." series that I used to teach myself Mac Terminal. It costs $10. Here is the link

Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal

and here's a link to a sample pdf

http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/samples/TCoCommandLineSample-1.0.pdf


hth

 

[mfecik]

So a few questions, Scary, maybe you can point me in the right direction on this...

I am all set and have everything ready to go when I get my Nexus so I can unlock the bootloader and root. This will be my first time, so I plan to use the easiest root method just to make sure I don't mess the phone up that I have waited this long to finally get!

Beyond that, I was looking at how to flash ROMs what to use for a back up program, etc...and started to get really really overwhelmed/confused at what to use. So My questions are:

-What is the best way for a beginner to make sure they download and use the best programs to backup? Nandroid vs. Titanium vs. ???

-Do different ROMs require you to use different programs? If so whats the most universal/used?

-Since the Nexus does not have a SD slot, how is flashing ROMs and backing up data done?

-Any other good tips/things to think about as a beginner?

TIA for your help!

 

[scary alien]

So a few questions, Scary, maybe you can point me in the right direction on this...

I am all set and have everything ready to go when I get my Nexus so I can unlock the bootloader and root. This will be my first time, so I plan to use the easiest root method just to make sure I don't mess the phone up that I have waited this long to finally get!

Beyond that, I was looking at how to flash ROMs what to use for a back up program, etc...and started to get really really overwhelmed/confused at what to use. So My questions are:

I'll give it a shot...I'm sure others will have some great feedback, too.

-What is the best way for a beginner to make sure they download and use the best programs to backup? Nandroid vs. Titanium vs. ???

Well you'll definitely want to make a Nandroid backup before you make any system-related modifications (i.e., flashing a ROM or theme, altering a system app, etc.). A Nandroid backup takes a whole device "snapshot" of your current setup (it backs-up all of the key partitions).

Titanium Backup is good for backing-up and restoring your apps...it does lots of other things, too (very cool and powerful). Still researching this, myself.

http://androidforums.com/ascend-all-things-root/258786-guide-backup-restore-apps-titanium-backup.html

http://androidforums.com/triumph-all-things-root/443402-how-use-titanium-backup-android-complete-guide.html (local AF link)

How To Use Titanium Backup For Android [Complete Guide] (page that above link references)

-Do different ROMs require you to use different programs? If so whats the most universal/used?

Not exactly sure what you're asking here...re. backup programs or apps? The answer would probably be no in either case.

-Since the Nexus does not have a SD slot, how is flashing ROMs and backing up data done?

Well, the custom recovery (presumably ClockworkMod in this case) will still know about and be able to open/access the "SD card", even though its mounted differently for the GNex. I don't know what the exact mount point is (i.e., if its still "/sdcard", etc.) since I don't have a GNex yet and obviously haven't used CWM on it (soon I hope ).

Same for the Nandroid backups: I would guess that they will still be written to something like a /sdcard/clockworkmod/backup/ccyy-mm-dd.hh.mm.ss directory.

-Any other good tips/things to think about as a beginner?

Here's a general FAQ that might help:

http://androidforums.com/faqs/450904-rooting-best-practices.html

TIA for your help!

No problem...happy to help .

Cheers and I hope that helps!

 

[mfecik]

I'll give it a shot...I'm sure others will have some great feedback, too.



Well you'll definitely want to make a Nandroid backup before you make any system-related modifications (i.e., flashing a ROM or theme, altering a system app, etc.). A Nandroid backup takes a whole device "snapshot" of your current setup (it backs-up all of the key partitions).

Titanium Backup is good for backing-up and restoring your apps...it does lots of other things, too (very cool and powerful). Still researching this, myself.

http://androidforums.com/ascend-all-things-root/258786-guide-backup-restore-apps-titanium-backup.html

http://androidforums.com/triumph-all-things-root/443402-how-use-titanium-backup-android-complete-guide.html (local AF link)

How To Use Titanium Backup For Android [Complete Guide] (page that above link references)



Not exactly sure what you're asking here...re. backup programs or apps? The answer would probably be no in either case.



Well, the custom recovery (presumably ClockworkMod in this case) will still know about and be able to open/access the "SD card", even though its mounted differently for the GNex. I don't know what the exact mount point is (i.e., if its still "/sdcard", etc.) since I don't have a GNex yet and obviously haven't used CWM on it (soon I hope ).

Same for the Nandroid backups: I would guess that they will still be written to something like a /sdcard/clockworkmod/backup/ccyy-mm-dd.hh.mm.ss directory.



Here's a general FAQ that might help:

http://androidforums.com/faqs/450904-rooting-best-practices.html



No problem...happy to help .

Cheers and I hope that helps!

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!

That was very helpful! I'm sure as I go I'll have other questions, but figured I better take it slow and one thing at a time...right now, unlock, root and make a backup is about all I plan to do until the new phone feeling starts to wear off (coming from a OG droid that is not rooted). At that point I know there will be tons of ROMs around and it will keep the phone feeling fresh and new.

Thanks again for all of you help! Here's hoping that we are all rewarded on Thursday!

 

[w0bbl3r]

• download root binaries (su / Superuser.apk) and unsecured boot image
  [*]unlock the bootloader via fastboot oem unlock (warning: wipes device!)
  
• boot the unsecured boot image (so you can remount /system in read/write mode)
• install the root binaries (su / Superuser.apk) to the phone
• reboot and enjoy root

I have read about a one-click app that will root, but I don't think it's Mac-based.

Let us know if you have any specific questions about the instructions.

Cheers!

Downloaded the GNexus-root-package-FYA.zip

Checked the md5 (in Terminal, go me!)

went to run the fastboot command and realised that the Zip linked in option 2, and referenced as "you still have to do steps A-J" in option 3, does not appear to have the mac fastboot, only fastboot.exe

some of the other downloads DO include it, but i'm very hesitant to mix and match without someone who knows what they are doing saying it's OK!.

 

[DucatiDude]

Hey there, w0bbl3r, if you've got a Mac, you've really got a leg-up on most folks because you won't have to deal with USB driver issues like the Microsoft Windows folks will.

The first post in this thread does have three different methods that will accommodate Mac, Linxu, and Windows. The basic steps for rooting are all the same, regardless of your PC's platform version:

• download root binaries (su / Superuser.apk) and unsecured boot image
• unlock the bootloader via fastboot oem unlock (warning: wipes device!)
• boot the unsecured boot image (so you can remount /system in read/write mode)
• install the root binaries (su / Superuser.apk) to the phone
• reboot and enjoy root

I have read about a one-click app that will root, but I don't think it's Mac-based.

Let us know if you have any specific questions about the instructions.

Cheers!

I, too, have a Mac, and it seems there some steps missing. I'm a little confused. Is there a Mac only guide somewhere? Much appreciated.

 

[scary alien]

Downloaded the GNexus-root-package-FYA.zip

Checked the md5 (in Terminal, go me!)

went to run the fastboot command and realised that the Zip linked in option 2, and referenced as "you still have to do steps A-J" in option 3, does not appear to have the mac fastboot, only fastboot.exe

some of the other downloads DO include it, but i'm very hesitant to mix and match without someone who knows what they are doing saying it's OK!.

w0bbl3r,

Sorry, haven't been on much today/tonight (very busy day at work...ugh!).

Yeah, you should be able to grab the fastboot-mac version from the other places, specifically from step A in the Manual Method:

A. if you already have the Android SDK installed with both the [B]adb [/B]and [B]fastboot [/B]
utilities, go ahead and skip to step B. 

If you don't have both [B]adb [/B]and [B]fastboot [/B]installed anywhere, it might be easiest 
to download and extract the [COLOR="blue"][B]sdk-tools.zip[/B][/COLOR] file referenced in the "[B]Mini-SDK[/B]" 
section of this thread [URL="http://androidforums.com/faqs/443072-adb-guide-updated-12-05-2011-a.html"]ADB Guide[/URL] to a folder on your PC of your choosing 
(take note of this folder/directory's name).

Using a Mac or Linux box should alleviate you of several issues that plague the Windows folks.

Good luck and let us know if you have any other questions.

Cheers!

 

[scary alien]

I, too, have a Mac, and it seems there some steps missing. I'm a little confused. Is there a Mac only guide somewhere? Much appreciated.

DucatiDude,

Sorry that its a bit confusing...I've adapted the instructions from several sources and methods and tried to incorporate instruction that would accommodate Window / Mac / Linux.

It should all be there...let me know what steps you think are missing.

Cheers!

 

[w0bbl3r]

I'm sure i speak for all of us when i say we're severely indebted for your help, but yes i've had to use several other sources to get to the relatively modest distance i have!

One thing that took a while to work out was that apparently you need to prefix the fastboot commands with ./

so

fastboot devices
becomes
./fastboot-mac devices

I'm sure that's head slapping obvious to most people, but it sure stumped me!

Otherwise you're right, simply booting with volume up and down held, and typing the above in Terminal while in the appropriate directory is literally all that's needed on a Mac, which basically just cuts down on how many thing si can get wrong, which is a bonus!

Going for the actual unlock after my morning S, S and S.

Man, so much hassle, just for Ad-Free!

OK success!

with the combined resources of the 1st and 3rd packs,

./fastboot-mac devices
(to check it's connected)
./fastboot-mac oem unlock

(i then soft booted the boot.img but i'm pretty sure that was not needed)

chmod +x install-superboot-mac.sh
./install-superboot-mac.sh

So about 2 days of reading and worrying came down to those 4 commands!

 

[scary alien]

w0bbl3r,

No problem and thank you for the kind words .

I'll update the first post when I get a few minutes...that's great feedback and information (I've seen references like that before and its very Unix-y, but I don't have or use a Mac, so that is a very helpful reminder). Thank you.

Cheers!

 

[steveman22]

i haven't got the device myself but my friend has and he downloaded a custom ROM fla.sh x 2.3 and it came pre rooted and from what i saw makes it a hell of a lot faster of course there are a lot of other roms that come pre rooted i.e. cyanogen fla.sh etc

 

[John Markley]

I'm sure i speak for all of us when i say we're severely indebted for your help, but yes i've had to use several other sources to get to the relatively modest distance i have!

One thing that took a while to work out was that apparently you need to prefix the fastboot commands with ./

so

fastboot devices
becomes
./fastboot-mac devices

In Mac command line, ./ means "run the following program or shell", so you would also need it to run adb, as in "./adb devices", etc.

 

[scary alien]

In Mac command line, ./ means "run the following program or shell", so you would also need it to run adb, as in "./adb devices", etc.

John,

I'm guessing that the relative reference is needed because the PATH environment variable would not necessarily be pointing to one's current working directory being used to house the fastboot-mac and adb-mac (or fastboot and adb if that's what is being used) commands.

I know the Mac is Linux (Mach kernel) at its heart, after all .

I'll get the first post updated...

Cheers!

 

[John Markley]

John,

I'm guessing that the relative reference is needed because the PATH environment variable would not necessarily be pointing to one's current working directory being used to house the fastboot-mac and adb-mac (or fastboot and adb if that's what is being used) commands.

I know the Mac is Linux (Mach kernel) at its heart, after all .

I'll get the first post updated...

Cheers!

Yes. Quoting from the "Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Termial" ebook I referenced earlier,

"Run a Program
To summarize, you can run a program in any of three ways, depending on where the program is located, your current position in the file system, and what

 

[trophynuts]

woot!

after about 2 hours of reading and re reading i think i finally have everything set up to go as soon as i get the stinking device. I'm running a Mac but i also have VMFusion with a Windows build and a Ubuntu build. I ended up going the Mac route. I'm still extremely noobish in Ubuntu and gave up. I got all the way to looking for devices via adb in the terminal window on my Mac so i'm at a good stopping point.

thanks to everyone in this thread for all of the good info in here. This is going to be an extremely popular thread as soon as the G Nex lands here in the states.

 

[scary alien]

All,

I updated the first post earlier this afternoon, but didn't have time to post back here to let you all know.

The changes I made were to make separate MS/Windows and Mac/Linux sections where appropriate.

Not 100% happy about doing that since it gloms-up the flow, but it should allow those that need the explicit references and examples to see the slight differences in syntax needed between these two systems (I thought about using HIDE tags to separate things, but then I would have either had to hide everything or choose one platform to not hide--danged if you do, ... etc. ).

Hope that helps .

Cheers!

 

[ItsASamsung]

It would be great if this could be posted as yet another method in the OP. I posted this in the pre-release thread but thought it might get lost there so I think this thread would be much more relevant.

There's an easier method I found though that doesn't deal with any insecure boot image:

1. Unlock the bootloader (fastboot oem unlock)
2. Flash CWM recovery using fastboot: Link
3. Flash Superuser in CWM recovery: Link
4. Reboot

And in case anyone gets an issue with overwriting of CWM with the stock recovery upon reboot use Root Explorer and delete the file "/system/recovery-from-boot.p". You must mount it as R/W prior to deleting the file (the button in the top right corner).

 

[w0bbl3r]

Out of interest, just to clarify, is ClockworkRecovery an essential step in flashing custom ROMS, and otherwise not advantageous?

Or is it also required for nandroid backups?

As my main goal was getting AdFree, i did not flash CWR. I was hoping a simple unlock and root would enable me to still receive OTA's.