Root Thinking of Rooting the wife's old N7, suggestions and guidance needed.

DonB said:

kool thanks, is this Rom based on 5.1.1, I was tempted to go back to KitKat

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Yes it is based on Lollipop I think they have a kit kat version not sure though. I had it on my Nexus 5 and it was the best ROM that I found that gave me longevity and was snappy.

No separate issues

Hey @DonB you inspired me to put it on myne I ran titanium and diabled a lot of apps I don't need on it like contacts and phone. I still have it set up as a radiohead. Its great when I'm in garage then want to chill in living room because I cast it

DonB said:

A little update, decided to revert back to KK, and installed a CM 11 KK 4.4.4 Rom, and the tablet is running smooth as butter and no more lag.

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Glad you have it running the way you like

I have stayed rocking the euphoria. It has been very solid for me.

scary alien said:

Hey Don!
1) Best / easiest way to root would be:

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I would have saved myself so much hassle if I had just found this post before I rooted my N7.

I've rooted every android phone I've had
but I'm no expert or dev dude. Not a novice either. But anytime the command line gets involved i get squeemish. Each time I've been able to do it I've based my success not on myself but on the people who write the how-to's on forums like this. For me, one of the best things ever was the advent of the one click root apk's. I've avoided having to use my computer to root a phone... until the other day.

To make a long story short, since I live in the margins anyway as it is I figured I'd give kingroot a shot... knowing ahead of time that it's a suspect product... unfortunately it's one of the only way to successfully root my phone... a LG vs810pp (transpyre). Much to my surprise, it worked great. The first time! Then I ran a script I found on xda that replaces kingroot with SuperSU. Once again, worked great. First time.

Emboldened, and knowing that google is done sending OTA updates to my N7(2012) i figured now would be a good time to root it. I didn't have a lot of the problems that many people seemed to complain about regarding 5.1.1. but I figured it couldn't hurt to get rid of bloatware and get some control over the tablet.
Kingroot worked fine... But when I ran the script to remove and replace with SuperSU all hell broke loose. Got the bootloop. But I didn't panic.

I came here and found this thread and also used scary_alien's guide regarding flashing the stock image on a N7. Then I used the guide on this page to get root back. So 8 hours later after a few failed attempts and thinking I had a hard brick... I got it to work and was back up and running. Or so i thought. According to the tablet I only had 6GB of storage space. Doh! Did a factory reset and that fixed everything.

I said all that to ask this... After I did a factory reset I went back into recovery mode and noticed the instance of TWRP I installed when I rooted the tablet is gone. I still have root access, just no recovery program. Can I just go ahead an install TWRP from the play store? Or do I need to flash it again via fastboot?

Special shout out to scary_alien for saving my arse not once but twice! Great how-to's dude. Very detailed and accurate. Thanks $1,000,000!

@zuul, thank you for the kind words .

Whilst rooted, just download my Root Toolkit for Android app from the Play Store and tell it to Flash a Custom Recovery and it will present you with a list of ones including TWRP v2.6.0.0 (not sure if there's a more recent one than that--lemme know if you want/need a more recent version).

You'll also see that app will allow you to re-flash the stock recoveries, too.

Finally, if you lose the custom recovery again, try running the "Make Recovery Stick" option and that should take care of things.

Cheers!

edit: I do indeed see that TWRP 3.0.0.0 is available for the 1st-gen (2012) N7...I'll see if I can get the app updated this weekend for that .

scary alien said:

@zuul, thank you for the kind words .

Whilst rooted, just download my Root Toolkit for Android app from the Play Store and tell it to Flash a Custom Recovery and it will present you with a list of ones including TWRP v2.6.0.0 (not sure if there's a more recent one than that--lemme know if you want/need a more recent version).

You'll also see that app will allow you to re-flash the stock recoveries, too.

Finally, if you lose the custom recovery again, try running the "Make Recovery Stick" option and that should take care of things.

Cheers!

edit: I do indeed see that TWRP 3.0.0.0 is available for the 1st-gen (2012) N7...I'll see if I can get the app updated this weekend for that .

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Thanks again!

Also, I appreciate the heads up on ES Explorer. Dumped it off everything.

For the $ I still think these are some of the best smaller tablets. Seems like since I have a clean install the lollipop is running just fine. I'm certainly not a power user. Mostly I stream netflix and xfinity on it and use it to read epubs & cbr/cbz's. I've got the 32GB model, never have come close to filling it up. Sometimes I feel bad that i don't do more with it. I'm retired from gaming... deep rabbit hole for me. It still looks current compared to a similar vintage ipad (which are all but obsolete). Airdroid makes it easy to get stuff on and off. Don't have to mess with the cloud.

That's awesome that you'd take the time to update the app. I'll hang off on downloading the root toolkit until first thing next week. I'll be sure to leave my + feedback in the play store.

v5.0 of Root Toolkit for Android is now up in the Play Store with support for flashing TWRP 3.0.0.0 for the 1st-gen (2012) N7 .

Cheers!

Hey if you guys are still having any Lollipop or Marshmallow problems with your N7 2012, try this:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-7/development/rom-cyanogenmod-11-nexus-security-fixes-t3241243

It seems no matter which LP or MM ROM I've tried, it starts out really good and degrades. Even if you disable journaling and use the trimming app. I know going backwards to Kit Kat is a little hard to swallow for us cutting edge types, but the device just works on this ROM.

Yeah I'll definitely take an occasional lockup with a functional device. Still check out that link I posted, that has the current security updates for Kit Kat. Plus some nice CM customization if you're into that.