Root Rooting Help (N7 2013)

[maccos01]

Hi John,
Thanks for moving the thread, anything that helps get the right people, I am for it.

The Nexus is not rooted. If that is necessary to do this, I am up for it, if someone can just refer me to a how-to, then I can do that and anything else I should know about rooting. It is a Nexus 7 2013, 32 GB. I dont have a service carrier, I just bought it off ebay in December of 2014. If I look under the "About tablet" it says it is using Android version 5.0.2 with Kernel version 3.4.0.

Still working on uploading the tasker video which shows what I have at the moment....slow connection here.

 

[codesplice]

We've got a pretty solid "how to root" guide here: How to Manually Root the 2013 Nexus 7

I strongly recommend that you do go that route, which doesn't take any shortcuts and also gets you at least somewhat familiar with the fastboot bootloader and recovery options - which subsequently makes you better prepared if you do run into issues down the road.

If you'd rather just root and forget it, WugFresh's Nexus Root Toolkit is another option. It's safe and easy, or so I've heard.

Either route should work fine for your needs, and you'll then be able to use Tasker plugins like Secure Settings to toggle radios and terminate apps. I've used that for managing Airplane Mode on my Nexus 4 running 5.0.1, so it should work fine on your tablet as well.

When you have a moment, could you share some screenshots of your current Tasker configuration? That may help us to track down any inconsistencies.

 

[maccos01]

Quick question on the rooting process (I am very new to all this stuff). I downloaded the Mini SDK zip file and extracted it. Now I see on some tutorials there is information about installing the drivers. I captured a screenshot of my directory...does this show that I already have the drivers installed and I can skip this step?

 

[maccos01]

I installed some sort of USB driver and updated the driver. Then I went into the command prompt to check if I am connected and it says "fastboot" is not a recognized command?

 

[codesplice]

@maccos01
I brought your root-related discussions over here to its own thread where the appropriate Subject Matter Experts can see it.

Quick question on the rooting process (I am very new to all this stuff). I downloaded the Mini SDK zip file and extracted it. Now I see on some tutorials there is information about installing the drivers. I captured a screenshot of my directory...does this show that I already have the drivers installed and I can skip this step?

There are actually a few different drivers that are needed depending on how the device is connecting to your computer. That driver looks to be the generic "portable device" driver; that's the one that lets you drag-and-drop files to/from the device.

You still will need to install the fastboot (bootloader) and adb (Android Debugging Bridge) driver to be able to interact with the device in those modes. By far the easiest way of getting those drivers installed is via Koush's universal adb driver installers. It's a standard Windows MSI installer file that will install the drivers for you.

I installed some sort of USB driver and updated the driver. Then I went into the command prompt to check if I am connected and it says "fastboot" is not a recognized command?

Could you verify that the adb.exe and fastboot.exe executables are directly inside that sdk-tools folder? Sometimes compressed archives get kind of funny and want to add another layer of difficulty.

 

[maccos01]

OK, figured out that I had to go into developer mode and then enable usb debugging. It then was able to communicate with the device.

 

[maccos01]

OK so when I got into TWRP I cannot find the zip file. I know I placed it right onto the device earlier, but its nowhere to be found. I cannot see the device on my computer now to re-add the zip file....what do I do now?

 

[maccos01]

Hey sorry for jumping around, but I was able to connect to the device and compete step one of getting into fastbook mode and unlocking bootlogger. Then I got the recovery image on, and erased cache. But when it came to flashing SU, my SU zip file that I moved to the device is not showing up and now I am not sure how to get it onto the device as my computer does not see the tablet anymore.....ugh, help

 

[codesplice]

Hey sorry for jumping around, but I was able to connect to the device and compete step one of getting into fastbook mode and unlocking bootlogger. Then I got the recovery image on, and erased cache. But when it came to flashing SU, my SU zip file that I moved to the device is not showing up and now I am not sure how to get it onto the device as my computer does not see the tablet anymore.....ugh, help

No worries, I worked some magic to bring the convo back together again.

With the device booted to TWRP recovery, connect it to your computer via USB. You should then be able to run adb devices from your mini-SDK tools directory, which should detect the phone. If not, take a look in Device Manager to make sure that there's an "Android ADB" (or similar) device detected.

Once connected you can use ADB to "push" the superuser.zip file onto the device: adb push name-of-superuser.zip /sdcard/. You should then be able to find (and flash) it with TWRP.

I think. I don't have the luxury of having a device in front of me so I'm going off of memory.

 

[maccos01]

I got the push thing figured out "I think", but is says device not found. See cmd screenshot.

What do you mean by "run adb devices"? I took that as running the ADB application file, which briefly pulled up a command screen with some script and then closed. nothing happened, is that right? Attached is what my device manager looks like (before and after "running adb devices"). When I am in my directory where I would normally go to get access to the tablets sd card, the E and F drives just say "please insert disk". When the tablet is plugged into the computer is makes the notification sound that its connected, but nothing shows up.

 

[codesplice]

Yep, that Google Nexus ADB interface *should* indicate that the ADB driver is loaded correctly.

adb devices is a command to run from the command prompt - just like you did for the "adb push" bit. Either way, though, the fact that it is returning "device not found" indicates that something isn't working 100% for ADB.

If you reboot back into Android, you can try doing the "adb push" bit again. It can be a bit more predictable there rather than in recovery. Let us know how it goes.

 

[maccos01]

I tried to get back into android, but it just gets stuck in the screen where the yellow, blue, red & green balls are floating around and it never gets to the startup login screen.

 

[codesplice]

How long did you wait? It can take a long time to rebuild the cache, up to 10 minutes or more in some cases.

As long as it doesn't return to the static "Google" bootloader screen I'd let it keep booting. I saw a guy the other day who spent a few days troubleshooting a "bootloop" issue and it turned out that he just wasn't being patient enough to let the phone boot.

 

[maccos01]

OK now I got it to the welcome screen. Still says device not found in the command screen when I try to push

 

[maccos01]

Do I have to sign in at the welcome screen?

 

[maccos01]

I signed in and there is a notification saying "tap here to install SU and root your device" ....I didnt try it yet. Should I try it?

I did try to push again adb from the command screen and it still says device not found. and when plugged in to the computer, there is still no way of opening the drive for the tablet.

 

[codesplice]

Oh, I know what's up - you need to go back into Developer Options to enable USB Debugging. That should get your adb going again.

 

[maccos01]

ahh, good idea, got it into enable USB debugging.....still says device not found.

 

[codesplice]

Blast, I thought I was onto something!

And the "Google Android ADB Device" is still showing up as connected in Device Manager?

 

[maccos01]

So I went ahead and installed and updated the SU from the notification described earlier. It must download the zip file over a wifi connection?

One of the tutorials says to install "titanium backup" to check if you are rooted. I did that and the attached sceenshot shows that it appears I am rooted. Am I done? if so, great

But the tablet is still not showing up on my desktop, my phone shows up, but no tablet. Yes the device manager is still showing the Google Android ADB Device and it dissappears/reappears when I plug/unplug the tablet

 

[maccos01]

well, it connects fine on my other desktop, I can open the device and view all the folders...that works for me.....so am I now fully rooted?

 

[codesplice]

Interesting. That does sound like you're rooted. Do you have the SuperSU app listed in your App Drawer? And/or did you get a SuperSU prompt when you launched Titanium?

 

[maccos01]

I see the SU Icon in the apps list as you can see in the screenshot.

I installed tasker and secure settings and it does appear to now have access to the advanced features such as GPS and airplane mode, woohoo, I think I can begin to do what I originally set out to do!

 

[codesplice]

Nice!!

Protip: you may also want to install busybox to make sure that you (and your apps) have access to the standard set of linux command-line utilities. That's a lot easier: just install this sucker from the Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=stericson.busybox

 

[maccos01]

OK I installed BusyBox, I think its time to move back to the original post (tasker and hardware). Hopefully done with this rooting stuff!