[GUIDE] ***How-To Root Using rwilco12's One-Click Repack Kernel & SuperUser***

[TheBritton]

EDIT (2/24/13):
Before proceeding, just wanted to update new users and/or those intimidated by the following guide of an easier way to root. I have posted a guide here outlining those easier methods:
http://androidforums.com/galaxy-s2-4g-all-things-root/692347-guide-basic-rooting-roms-noobies.html



***How-To Root Using a One-Click Kernel and SuperUser***

Please read this entire post before proceeding.



These instructions are specific to the Virgin Mobile Galaxy S2 4G (will also work on Sprint's version of the Galaxy S2, Epic 4G Touch or SPH-D710). Although similar methods may work with other phones this method requires the use of a kernel that IS NOT compatible with any other phone but the Sprint/Virgin Mobile's Samsung Galaxy S2. If you do not have the Sprint or Virgin Mobile Galaxy S2 please DO NOT follow this method for gaining Root access it WILL brick your phone!



This method will trigger the Yellow Triangle upon start-up and will increase your Odin count. It will also change your startup screen to look like the International GS2 startup screen. This is normal and can be fixed!

For instructions to clear the Odin count and remove the yellow triangle please look at the XDA thread for the Triangle Away app found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1494114

The Triangle Away app has been confirmed to work on this phone by a significant number of users. It is free to XDA users via the link but I highly recommend purchasing the app from the Google Play Store to support the hours of work spent creating the app for the community. It is a nice way to give back and to show your appreciate for benefiting from their hard work.

This method uses an Odin One-Click Kernel to install a kernel that includes a Custom Recovery. Once booted into the Custom Recovery you can then flash Superuser which will root your phone and give you Superuser access.


INSTRUCTIONS:

First, make sure you have installed Samsung USB drivers here:
Samsung Galaxy S2 4G USB Drivers: Samsung_E4GT_USB_Driver_v1_3_2360_0.exe

1. Download the following:

One-Click kernel (Agat63's tFI03 Repack Kernel) found here:
Rwilco12's Android Repository
SuperUser 3.07 ZIP found here:
Rwilco12's Android Repository

2. Place the SuperUser 3.07 ZIP on your phone's SD card.

3. Open the tFI03_Agats_Recovery.exe file (by double-clicking on your PC).
Once the tFI03_Agats_Recovery.exe file is opened you will be presented with a window that has a black title bar across the top, several empty boxes and a Start button.
Leave the screen up but do nothing else here for now.

4. Reboot your phone into Download/Odin Mode by holding down the Power and Volume Down buttons.

5. When prompted press the Volume Up key to continue.

6. Plug your USB cord into your phone and then plug the other end of the cord into an available USB slot.
Once the phone is plugged in you should see one of the white boxes on the tFI03_Agats_Recovery.exe One-Click program turn yellow.

7. Press Start on the tFI03_Agats_Recovery.exe One-Click program.

If the flash is successful your phone will now reboot. This will take slightly longer than usual, this is normal. Please note that there will be no boot animation, please be patient while your phone reboots.

You are now running your new kernel with custom recovery!

Now, for the rooting process:

8. After the phone has completely rebooted power off.

9. Hold down Power and Volume Up to boot into Recovery.

10. Scroll down to "wipe cache partition" and press power.

11. Scroll down to "Yes - Wipe Cache" and press power.

12. Scroll down to "advanced" and press power.

13. Scroll down to "Wipe Dalvik Cache" and press power.

14. Scroll down to "Yes - Wipe Dalvik Cache" and press power.

15. Scroll down to "+++++Go Back+++++" and press power.

16. Select either "choose zip from sdcard" or "choose zip from external sdcard" (depending on where you've saved SuperUser 3.07 ZIP in Step 2) and navigate to the SuperUser 3.07 ZIP and press power.

17. Scroll down to "Yes - Install .zip" and press power.

18. Scroll down to "+++++Go Back+++++" and press power.

19. Select reboot menu then press power. Verify "reboot system" is highlighted and press power.
Congratulations you are now rooted! Enjoy!

Note: The boot screen will have a yellow triangle (see above for info on how to remove)
You will see "Android is upgrading" progress bar upon first boot. This is normal.

Thanks to chri81 for confirming this root method and sharing it with the community!

Also, many thanks to rwilco12 whose kernel and guide this thread is based. It can be found here:
Rwilco12's Android Repository

 

[TheBritton]

IMPORTANT NOTES (updated 12/8/12):


Update on safety from rwilco12 (12/8/12):

tFI03 kernel is my main kernel except for when flashing something I myself didn't compile. Whenever I have to flash someone else's zips I always revert back to chris41g's EL26 kernel. All stock repacks still have the EMMC cap bug in them and although there are steps taken to prevent the hard brick it could still happen.

As far as kernel compatibility. All kernels on my site are 100% compatible with the Boost, Sprint and Virgin variants of the S2. In fact the phones are 100% identical as far as hardware goes. The only differences are in software and branding. The same applies to the modems.

Everyone be aware that installing a ROM for Sprint's Samsung Galaxy S2, Epic 4G Touch, or other sister phones for other carriers on this device will most likely result in MMS and 4G and/or 3G not working properly and other possible issues which may or may not be easily fixed.
Please wait for developers to port and create ROMs specifically for our Virgin Mobile phone and possibly create a custom recovery to flash the ROM once they exist. The phone's stock software is fantastic so please be patient!
Update (12/2/12): According to several user reports, flashing Sprint ROMs has disabled the functioning of some or all of the following: MMS, 4G, 3G.
This may possibly be reversed by changing the APN settings as described in this post but if you are new to rooting I suggest to play it safe and easy, and wait for ROMs made specifically for our device.

In summary:

1. Flashing ROMs with this recovery may cause issues.
2. Flashing Sprint ROMs, if successful, WILL most likely cause MMS, 4G, and/or 3G not to function (which may or not be easily fixed)

 

[notebooko]

Wow you made this so much easier! Good job, this will greatly help the rooting process for other people.

 

[TheBritton]

Wow you made this so much easier! Good job, this will greatly help the rooting process for other people.

Give thanks to chri81 for sharing this with us.
Thanks to rwilco12 and his guide

 

[notebooko]

You may want to make clear that it is the superuser.apk you are flashing in the 2nd part. Although it may seem obvious even the slightest things can mess up a phone!

 

[TheBritton]

You may want to make clear that it is the superuser.apk you are flashing in the 2nd part. Although it may seem obvious even the slightest things can mess up a phone!

Never even noticed that! Thank you! Correcting that now.

mik991 was mentioning in another thread that using this method somehow confused the phone into thinking it was a Sprint phone and caused MMS to stop working properly? That has not been the case for me. MMS is working properly on my phone. Can anyone else confirm experiencing this issue? If this is a possible outcome, it definitely needs to be listed in the guide.

 

[notebooko]

Never even noticed that! Thank you! Correcting that now.

mik991 was mentioning in another thread that using this method somehow confused the phone into thinking it was a Sprint phone and caused MMS to stop working properly? That has not been the case for me. MMS is working properly on my phone. Can anyone else confirm experiencing this issue? If this is a possible outcome, it definitely needs to be listed in the guide.

MMS is still working for me. I think mik991 was referring to a post made by another person saying they can't get MMS because they tried another root method. I'm guessing mik991 tried to fix this problem by following your guide but still does not receive MMS. I don't think that there is a problem with this root method and people should have nothing to worry about. BTW I got rid of the triangle with the app mentioned earlier "triangle away." Worked without a hitch and now my odin count is back down to 0.

EDIT: I forgot to mention you can find the app "triangle away" for free on XDA by the developer. I bought it through the play store anyways because it's a great service he's providing us.

 

[TheBritton]

That is great news! Thanks, I'll try Triangle Away right now!

 

[striker325]

Thanks for the info on the "triangle away" app!

 

[cerj]

If you start flashing Roms, most likely Sprint roms, you will eventually have to replace the Sprint APN with your carriers APN (Boost Mobile or Virgin Etc). The Sprint roms come with a Sprint APN setting. You will need your MSL#. There are a few ways to get your MSL#. QBKING77 has videos on youtube that show you how to do most everything or you can GOOGLE. Once you have your MSL its easy. Open dialer and dial ##DATA## tap edit, type in MSL press ok. Tap others then tap MMSC URL and type in your carriers MMS address. example Sprints is mms.Sprint.com are something like that. for Boost Mobile you would type in mm.myboostmobile.com in place of Sprints address. Thats it. You will need your carriers APN. Just want to let ya know its pretty simple if you ever have problems with MMS. Happy Flashing. This works on Galaxy Epic 4G Touch should work with th 4G

 

[notebooko]

If you start flashing Roms, most likely Sprint roms, you will eventually have to replace the Sprint APN with your carriers APN (Boost Mobile or Virgin Etc). The Sprint roms come with a Sprint APN setting. You will need your MSL#. There are a few ways to get your MSL#. QBKING77 has videos on youtube that show you how to do most everything or you can GOOGLE. Once you have your MSL its easy. Open dialer and dial ##DATA## tap edit, type in MSL press ok. Tap others then tap MMSC URL and type in your carriers MMS address. example Sprints is mms.Sprint.com are something like that. for Boost Mobile you would type in mm.myboostmobile.com in place of Sprints address. Thats it. You will need your carriers APN. Just want to let ya know its pretty simple if you ever have problems with MMS. Happy Flashing. This works on Galaxy Epic 4G Touch should work with th 4G

Hmm....I'm tempted..

 

[khlover520]

Hey guys, I just bought my samsung gs2 4g from virgin mobile few days and i immediately rooted it. Now what happened is my phone rooted to a sprint rom. My phone now says running on sprint carrier and all that. I can't receive any mms due to the APN setting, which i tried changing to "VirginMMS" and its still not working. I was wondering if anyone has the stock rom for virgin mobile? I wanna switch my phone back to the way it was. :/

 

[TheBritton]

Hey guys, I just bought my samsung gs2 4g from virgin mobile few days and i immediately rooted it. Now what happened is my phone rooted to a sprint rom. My phone now says running on sprint carrier and all that. I can't receive any mms due to the APN setting, which i tried changing to "VirginMMS" and its still not working. I was wondering if anyone has the stock rom for virgin mobile? I wanna switch my phone back to the way it was. :/

Did you use only this method in this thread to root it or did you root it another way?

 

[notebooko]

Hey guys, I just bought my samsung gs2 4g from virgin mobile few days and i immediately rooted it. Now what happened is my phone rooted to a sprint rom. My phone now says running on sprint carrier and all that. I can't receive any mms due to the APN setting, which i tried changing to "VirginMMS" and its still not working. I was wondering if anyone has the stock rom for virgin mobile? I wanna switch my phone back to the way it was. :/

Try flashing the virgin mobile file at this link. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=29776464&postcount=51

 

[peter counias]

Does anyone no what to call this phone if you trying to flash cwm threw rommanager after rooting
The app gives five different names.

 

[b_randon14]

Does anyone no what to call this phone if you trying to flash cwm threw rommanager after rooting
The app gives five different names.

I wouldn't use rommanager, ever!

 

[peter counias]

Used triangle away worked fine on my phone from virgin
Yes the free APk from this thread.

 

[peter counias]

Has anyone that is rooted tried to use 4Ext recovery?

 

[notebooko]

I was thinking about factory resetting my phone because my Android OS% is taking too much battery. A lot of people who have this problem said that only a factory reset can fix it. I have a question though, if I were to factory reset would my root go away? Would I have to reflash the kernel and superuser apk?

edit: I factory reset and phone is still rooted.

 

[b_randon14]

Yeah root is contained on the system partition where the rest of the rom is. Factory reset just erases all user data, the data and cache, partitions

 

[lanceg]

First, excellent write up! I followed it and am now rooted. There are a few menu step missed (like you need to hit "reboot menu" and then reboot system") that you might want to add, but overall very well written and easy to follow.

You also might want to mention that you will see the "Updating apps" mention while it rebuild Dalvik cache the first time.

Thanks for the info on the "triangle away" app!

Here is the link for the app. You should really buy the version from the play store too. It works perfectly

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1494114

 

[TheBritton]

Thank you lanceg! I will add that in when I get home.

I suspect there will soon be a CWM built for this phone by b_randon14 and possibly an overclocking kernel. Also, this root method may soon be surpassed by a better method that doesn't require flashing the kernel as this guide instructs. In the meantime, this was the first successful root method known to myself and a few others so figured those needing an immediate root after purchasing the S2 (for Titanium Backup etc) can get by with this until developers like b_randon14 can provide us a cleaner and quicker method. By the way, we appreciate our devs!!
Thanks for the feedback!

 

[b_randon14]

Yeah luckily the cm9 epic 4g touch kernel has over locking and undervolting as well as gpu over clock and under volt as well from what I can tell. Plus a lot of other cool features so it shouldn't be hard to integrate as I believe they are based of the same Samsung(or virtually the same) 3.0.15 kernel source.

Can't make any promises but I will do what I can!

 

[peter counias]

build prop tweaks will thay work for the s2 on virgin?

 

[christiansoto]

can some upload stock rom thats flashable