Help with rooting

[speedracer888]

Hi,

I followed Atma's guide to root my T989. But, I apparently am not rooted. Could some one help me trouble shoot?

Everything seemed to go fine.

I was able to flash TWRP 2.5.0.0. with Odin. I was able to access the recovery menu in TWRP and flash Superuser 3.1.3. I see Superuser in my app drawer.

But when I downloaded Titanium Backup it says that I am not rooted. I tried to flash Superuser again a few times, but I get the same message from Titanium Backup.

Also, I should have read the guide more carefully, but I am running Android 4.1.2. So per the last post in the guide, in TWRP I selected reboot and then system. But my phone just reboots without telling me I am not rooted or asking me if I want to root.

Also to give some more background, I tried to upgrade to 4.1.2 via Kies, but it hung. So I upgraded via Odin using Atma's guide. It appears to have worked fine after checking the about device menu on my phone.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[bfldworker]

When I rooted my T989 I followed that guide, but I also had ICS installed on it. My suggestion is make sure you have the latest drivers installed, you are using the latest Odin, your USB cable is in perfect condition and you follow the instructions to the absolute letter and it should work.

Other then that I can't figure out why it isn't working.

 

[Atma]

Welcome to the forum speedracer :hello:

When you tired to root with TWRP, did you swipe the bar at the bottom when it asked if you wanted to root?

If that doesn't work, download the zip for SuperSU 1.51 from here and try flashing in recovery.

 

[speedracer888]

Really appreciate the quick responses and thanks for the welcome to the forum Atma! When it is your phone of course interested in getting it all sorted out.

By the way Atma, your guides are very helpful. I did some searching on the web before attempting to root and thought yours was the clearest guide.

bfldworker, I did try to follow the guide to the letter and did try it a few times. If all else fails, perhaps I go back to square one and reflash TWRP?

Atma, good question. I did realize that I had made a mistake. The first time I tried to flash Superuser 3.1.3, in TWRP I did go to Install and did swipe when it asked me to Root. But on my subsequent attempts I just went to Reboot in TWRP and selected System, so that was why no option to swipe to Root.

So, I decided to try SuperSU 1.51 as suggested because of the buzz that it might be a better superuser app. I went into TWRP, selected Install, selected SuperSU (on internal SD card), swiped to flash (successful), selected Reboot, selected swipe to Install (to root device), and phone rebooted.

I see SUperSU in my notification bar and it says tap to install and root. But when I tap, it says its binary is not present and it is a fatal error.

I tried it a few times with SuperSU on both my internal and external SD card and get the same error message.

Any other suggestions?

Perhaps I need to go back to flashing TWRP? I notice that there is a new version 2.6 which is compatible with the T989. Would this be good to use?

Also, I saw Koush's SuperUser. I like that it is open source. Perhaps ok to use?

Thanks again for the help.

 

[Atma]

So, I decided to try SuperSU 1.51 as suggested because of the buzz that it might be a better superuser app. I went into TWRP, selected Install, selected SuperSU (on internal SD card), swiped to flash (successful), selected Reboot, selected swipe to Install (to root device), and phone rebooted.

I see SUperSU in my notification bar and it says tap to install and root. But when I tap, it says its binary is not present and it is a fatal error.

You can try flashing SuperSU again, but this time when twrp asks if you want to root, don't swipe to root. Reboot and see if SuperSU is in your app drawer and then tap it. It may or may not say it needs to update or install a binary.

If that doesn't work, you can try to odin twrp again but I'm not sure that will work. You may have to start over and odin jellybean and twrp again. If you do, before you odin jelly bean, go to twrp and wipe everything, except internal storage and sd card.

 

[speedracer888]

Thanks very much Atma. I'll try these steps and let you know what happens.

And if I have to go back to jellybean, do you think using TWRP 2.6 is a good idea? How about Koush's SuperUser?

Thanks.

 

[Atma]

Thanks very much Atma. I'll try these steps and let you know what happens.

And if I have to go back to jellybean, do you think using TWRP 2.6 is a good idea? How about Koush's SuperUser?

Thanks.

I'm not sure how TWRP 2.6 is working on the S2. I don't use my S2 anymore, I have an S4. TWRP 2.6 has a problem with freezing on it so I hesitate to recommend 2.6 but you can give it a try. You can always got back if you have problems with it.

You can try superuser. I switched to Chainfire's supersu because he updates it often.

 

[speedracer888]

Thanks for the advice. One other question. For whichever superuser app I go for, does it matter if I put it on my internal SD versus external SD?

 

[Atma]

I think they usually say put it on your sd card but I'm not sure it really matters. I always put it on my external so I know its safe in case I need to use it again.

 

[speedracer888]

Cool. If I do go through the process again, I just wanted to maximize my chances of it working.

Thanks!

 

[speedracer888]

So, I reflashed 4.1.2, reflashed TWRP 2.5 and used SuperSU.

I followed the last post in Atma's thread about rooting and it worked with no problems. My mistake originally was not following the specific procedure for 4.1.2.

I am good to go now!

I think it would have been better once I had my problems originally to go back and redo the whole process.

Now to set up my phone.

Thanks to all especially Atma for the quick and friendly help!

 

[Atma]

You're welcome. Glad you got it rooted.