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

[scary alien]

Is anyone else having problems, after the superboot install, with wifi? Everything is working on my phone except wifi. Not wifi TETHER (they have a new build of that that works, btw.) But actual wifi.

I can connect to the network, get an IP address, but can't ping the gateway. I've tried multiple different networks, turning on/off mobile data, everything. (Mobile data works fine too.) I'm stumped on this one. Going to try to un-root one of the phones and see if it's some sort of hardware issue or if it's actually caused by rooting.

The same problem here.

Well, the Superboot method only basically inserts the root binaries on your phone (which don't come into play unless you invoke something root-related)--it shouldn't affect / impact anything else.

You could flash back to stock to see if that makes a difference...

 

[BzB]

i see. so it looks like the rooting methods are still being hashed out and we may achieve a route that's less intrusive than wiping the phone altogether. i can be a little more patient with rooting this phone than with my previous devices since google/samsung (and even verizon) did such a good job not loading it down with crapware. i will eventually root, but in no rush like i was with the htc devices. i want to see the initial wave of os updates and app updates and then i'll revisit root.

Well, let me qualify what I'm about to say with this: you need to unlock your bootloader at least once in order to root, and that will wipe your device.

Next, you can use the ClockworkMod method of rooting that either flashes CWM or soft-boots it, and you install the su.zip root package to insert the root binaries (su and Superuser.apk) onto your phone's /system partition.

That method and even the ones involving Superboot don't wipe your device...

Discussing the device wipes (specifically the "SD card") for a custom ROM is a little trickier since usually part of the installation process for installing a custom ROM does include some wipe operations. You'll have to consult the dev's particular ROM thread for information on whether that is necessary for any given ROM.

I have read a few things over on XDA about a tool (Super Wipe) that reformats some of your partitions so that wiping the "SD card" is not necessary. That's a little too much for me to bite-off at this point in time, but you can read about it and research in this particular ROM thread: [ROM] Android Revolution HD

 

[scary alien]

i see. so it looks like the rooting methods are still being hashed out and we may achieve a route that's less intrusive than wiping the phone altogether. i can be a little more patient with rooting this phone than with my previous devices since google/samsung (and even verizon) did such a good job not loading it down with crapware. i will eventually root, but in no rush like i was with the htc devices. i want to see the initial wave of os updates and app updates and then i'll revisit root.

Well, a lot of folks planned to unlock their bootloader right off the bat, so there wasn't anything to lose. But I think we all lost a little ground in figuring-out the USB driver issues and the difficulties of using some of the GSM rooting methods on the LTE (VZW) phones.

Really, you'll just need to unlock your bootloader once and "suffer" the consequences of having to reload your "SD card".

The method of installing root by flashing the su.zip root package through ClockworkMod is really easy and non-invasive, especially if you simply soft-boot CWM and don't flash it--you'll simply be installing the root binaries.

Lots of flexibility and options--that's what Android's all about, eh?

Cheers!

 

[BzB]

very true that some planned to root right away and rooting is easy enough. backing up and restoring the SD card isn't a big deal really, at least for me it isn't, just a slight annoyance.

In either case, you hit the nail on the head with the flexibility and options of android. i like not being relegated to a walled garden i have little control over.

 

[hapyface07]

Help please! This is the message I get in the fastboot mode:

Fastboot Mode: No boot or recovery image

Long story, but I messed up and executed an fastboot erase boot command. Which I now have no bootup file. Now I'm trying to fix my problem. Everytime I power on my phone, that is the message I get with my Gnex. I tried to execute a recovery.img command. It seems to execute it, but when reboot, I get the same message again. I tried to do a recovery boot in fastboot, but I get the red triangle android message. I tried to restore my phone to original factory mode, from someone on XDA developers, I download the 185mb file and execute the batch file. It tried to restore some files but it prompt errors in some of the file so it didn't work.

[ROM] Official Factory Image ITL41F - xda-developers

I also tried a Gnex toolkit V2 by another android user:

[GUIDE] Unlock, Root, CWM and Flash Your First Galaxy Nexus Rom For Newbs [GSM] - xda-developers

I installed the Toolkit V2, did a re-root, and it actually boot up just fine to the ICS main screen. Everything seems to work normal, but when I power down the phone, it did NOT keep the boot image and when I power back on, I get the "Fastboot Mode: No boot or recovery image" again.
So I was close to fixing my problem but not close enough! Please help. Thanks!

I just use the Gnex toolkit V2 to execute step 3, image recovery. It download the boot.img, then prompted remounted succeeded. And I was back to Android mainscreen. When I power down, I was back to the no boot or recovery image message. I did notice during the image recovery process, it prompt failed on '/system/recovery-from-boot.p' - No such file or directory.

I'm sure that failed prompt was due to my message using the fastboot erase boot.img command. How do I fix that? Thanks!

 

[scary alien]

hapyface07,

Which version of the GNex do you have: the GSM or the Verizon (VZW) LTE phone?

 

[hapyface07]

hapyface07,

Which version of the GNex do you have: the GSM or the Verizon (VZW) LTE phone?

I have the Verizon LTE. Thanks.

 

[scary alien]

I have the Verizon LTE. Thanks.

Okay, first: wow .

Second, it sounds like this phone is pretty resilient and that you are fastboot conversant...

Let's download the 4.0.2 stock image from here:

https://dl.google.com/dl/android/aosp/mysid-icl53f-factory-65895fa8.tgz

You really should double-check either the MD5 or the SHA1 checksum so you know you got the whole, uncorrupt file:

MD5 checksum: bafc4d3c5faa9822f76a5313fc91f743
SHA1 checksum: 65895fa8859002dbc028b94980162bfad6628e55

Do that and let me write-up a few other notes... Let me know when you've got it downloaded and verfied into a folder on your PC you can work in.

 

[hapyface07]

Okay, first: wow .

Second, it sounds like this phone is pretty resilient and that you are fastboot converstant...

Let's download the 4.0.2 stock image from here:

https://dl.google.com/dl/android/aosp/mysid-icl53f-factory-65895fa8.tgz

You really should double-check either the MD5 or the SHA1 checksum so you know you got the whole, uncorrupt file:

MD5 checksum: bafc4d3c5faa9822f76a5313fc91f743
SHA1 checksum: 65895fa8859002dbc028b94980162bfad6628e55

I just tried Superboot for the upteenth time, left it at the black screen with the Google logo for about 15 minutes, then pulled the battery, but forgot to pulled the usb cable. This time it proceed to Odin Mode,? and now it prompts "Downloading... Do not turn off target!!" My battery was just about dead so I pulled the usb cable and plug in the charger. My question is it downloading from my pc via usb cable, and should I have pull the cable, if I didn't, my battery would have died. But now did I mess up the downloading process? It's been stuck in the mode for about 10 minutes now..

I will wait to see if it does anything, if not, I'll proceed to your methods. Thanks!


Do that and let me write-up a few other notes... Let me know when you've got it downloaded and verified into a folder on your PC you can work in.

thanks.

 

[scary alien]

hapyface07,

Just to make sure you know what I'm planning on having you do is to fully restore everything back to stock, okay?

Also, are you using MS/Windows, Mac, or Linux?

 

[hapyface07]

Okay, first: wow .

Second, it sounds like this phone is pretty resilient and that you are fastboot conversant...

Let's download the 4.0.2 stock image from here:

https://dl.google.com/dl/android/aosp/mysid-icl53f-factory-65895fa8.tgz

You really should double-check either the MD5 or the SHA1 checksum so you know you got the whole, uncorrupt file:

MD5 checksum: bafc4d3c5faa9822f76a5313fc91f743
SHA1 checksum: 65895fa8859002dbc028b94980162bfad6628e55

Do that and let me write-up a few other notes... Let me know when you've got it downloaded and verfied into a folder on your PC you can work in.

I call Verizon to switch service back to my droid with 3g while I attempt to fix my Gnex since I don't have internet at home. I'm download the factory file that you link here and it's download at about 40kb/sec so it's going to take awhile.. in the meantime, I'm still stuck in the Odin Mode, with the downloading message to not turn off the target, for about 20 minutes now... My usb cable is charging the battery, not plugged into my pc..

 

[hapyface07]

hapyface07,

Just to make sure you know what I'm planning on having you do is to fully restore everything back to stock, okay?

Also, are you using MS/Windows, Mac, or Linux?

I'm using Windows 7. Yes I do want to restore to stock. Thanks. Bruce

 

[scary alien]

hapyface07,

Just to make sure you know what I'm planning on having you do is to fully restore everything back to stock, okay?

Also, are you using MS/Windows, Mac, or Linux?

I call Verizon to switch service back to my droid with 3g while I attempt to fix my Gnex since I don't have internet at home. I'm download the factory file that you link here and it's download at about 40kb/sec so it's going to take awhile.. in the meantime, I'm still stuck in the Odin Mode, with the downloading message to not turn off the target, for about 20 minutes now... My usb cable is charging the battery, not plugged into my pc..

Okay, just want to double-check what kind of PC you have?

Also, I'm thinking we can probably not have you flash you all the way back to stock (at the moment)--we can just extract the boot.img file from the stock images you are downloading and then try flashing that to see if that fixes you (sounds like it should since you only wiped-out the boot partition).

 

[scary alien]

I'm using Windows 7. Yes I do want to restore to stock. Thanks. Bruce

Thanks, Bruce!

I don't think it looks too bad, but not sure what other machinations you've been through before here...

I've flashed back to stock about a dozen times now (both full and partial), but I'm thinking you are just missing your boot partition (which is what the message you are seeing is saying, of course).

We can try the partial recovery first and then do the whole shebang if you want.

I'll hang with you here...just let me know when the download finishes.

Cheers!

 

[hapyface07]

Thanks, Bruce!

I don't think it looks too bad, but not sure what other machinations you've been through before here...

I've flashed back to stock about a dozen times now (both full and partial), but I'm thinking you are just missing your boot partition (which is what the message you are seeing is saying, of course).

We can try the partial recovery first and then do the whole shebang if you want.

I'll hang with you here...just let me know when the download finishes.

Cheers!

Yes, I'm sure that I just need my boot partition back. I new to this so I don't know what steps I need to do. I'm only at 67mb into the 189mb file. In the meantime, do you know about Odin mode? It's still stuck in that downloading mode. Should I pull my battery or plug in my usb cable?

 

[scary alien]

Yes, I'm sure that I just need my boot partition back. I new to this so I don't know what steps I need to do. I'm only at 67mb into the 189mb file. In the meantime, do you know about Odin mode? It's still stuck in that downloading mode. Should I pull my battery or plug in my usb cable?

Yeah, I think you get into that mode by pressing and holding the volume down key and then the power button. You could just do a battery pull, then reconnect the USB cable to let it charge while the download continues (leave it off, of course--it will charge fast that way, too).

I'll streamline the notes for you to just restore and reflash the boot.img file.

Be right back...

 

[scary alien]

Bruce,

- Okay, so after the download of the mysid-icl53f-factory-65895fa8.tgz completes, place/move it to a directory like "c:\gnexfix" (I'll use that for my reference purposes for now).

- Make sure you've verified the MD5 checksum of the above file (I had a bad copy on my hard drive a few weeks ago that I almost ended-up flashing--eek!).

- Use a zip utility (Winzip, Winrar, 7zip, etc) to extract the contents of mysid-icl53f-factory-65895fa8.tgz to the "c:\gnexfix" folder/directory

- You should now have a "mysid-icl53f" folder from the above extract that lives subordinate to / inside the c:\gnexfix folder

- Next, start up a Windows Command Prompt and cd (change directory) to the "c:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f" folder/directory

- Note: unless you've changed your PATH environment variable to know where the fastboot utility is, you might want to copy the fastboot utility to the "c:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f" folder/directory, too

- here's what things should look like at this point:

C:\gnexfix>[COLOR="purple"][B]dir[/B][/COLOR]
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 843C-52A5

 Directory of C:\gnexfix

12/25/2011  10:21 PM    <DIR>          .
12/25/2011  10:21 PM    <DIR>          ..
[COLOR="Blue"]12/25/2011  10:27 PM    <DIR>          mysid-icl53f
12/25/2011  10:18 PM       198,691,962 mysid-icl53f-factory-65895fa8.tgz[/COLOR]
               1 File(s)    198,691,962 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  454,956,482,560 bytes free

C:\gnexfix>[COLOR="purple"][B]cd mysid-icl53f[/B][/COLOR]

C:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f>[COLOR="purple"][B]dir[/B][/COLOR]
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 843C-52A5

 Directory of C:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f

12/25/2011  10:27 PM    <DIR>          .
12/25/2011  10:27 PM    <DIR>          ..
[COLOR="blue"]12/09/2011  07:04 PM         2,363,392 bootloader-toro-primekk15.img
12/09/2011  07:04 PM               917 flash-all.sh
12/09/2011  07:04 PM       194,211,522 [B][COLOR="Red"]image-mysid-icl53f.zip[/COLOR][/B]
12/09/2011  07:04 PM         3,802,224 radio-cdma-toro-i515.ek05.img
12/09/2011  07:04 PM        10,748,160 radio-toro-i515.ek02.img[/COLOR]
               5 File(s)    211,126,215 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  454,956,482,560 bytes free

C:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f>

- Now, you should be able to use your zip utility to do an "extract" of the boot.img file from the image-mysid-icl53f.zip file

- Note: the MD5 checksum I get on my copy of the boot.img file is:

c611f34f539e7e668776e7aa87c39dbd *boot.img

- Okay, time to power your phone back up into fastboot mode (press (and hold) the volume-up and volume-down rocker while you press the power button); keep holding all three for a few seconds until you see the Android laying on his back with his chest-plate open

- Now that we have this file, we should just be able to flash it back to the boot partition:

[note: give a few seconds between each command and take note of its output/success]

++ first: check to see if you've still got USB connectivity:

C:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f>fastboot devices

(you should see something like your device's serial # being displayed)

++ next, let's do the actual reflash of your boot image:

C:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f>fastboot flash boot boot.img

++ finally, let's reboot the bootloader to see if that annoying error message you are getting has now gone away:

C:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f>fastboot reboot-bootloader

Good luck and let me know!

Cheers!

 

[hapyface07]

Yeah, I think you get into that mode by pressing and holding the volume down key and then the power button. You could just do a battery pull, then reconnect the USB cable to let it charge while the download continues (leave it off, of course--it will charge fast that way, too).

I'll streamline the notes for you to just restore and reflash the boot.img file.

Be right back...

Ok, file finally download. I extracted it and saved it to a folder. There are 5 files

 

[scary alien]

Ok, file finally download. I extracted it and saved it to a folder. There are 5 files

Cool...just replying to make sure you saw my post right before your last one.

Should be straight-forward for you...let me know if you have any questions...

 

[hapyface07]

Bruce,

- Okay, so after the download of the mysid-icl53f-factory-65895fa8.tgz completes, place/move it to a directory like "c:\gnexfix" (I'll use that for my reference purposes for now).

- Make sure you've verified the MD5 checksum of the above file (I had a bad copy on my hard drive a few weeks ago that I almost ended-up flashing--eek!).

- Use a zip utility (Winzip, Winrar, 7zip, etc) to extract the contents of mysid-icl53f-factory-65895fa8.tgz to the "c:\gnexfix" folder/directory

- You should now have a "mysid-icl53f" folder from the above extract that lives subordinate to / inside the c:\gnexfix folder

- Next, start up a Windows Command Prompt and cd (change directory) to the "c:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f" folder/directory

- Note: unless you've changed your PATH environment variable to know where the fastboot utility is, you might want to copy the fastboot utility to the "c:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f" folder/directory, too

- here's what things should look like at this point:

C:\gnexfix>[COLOR=purple][B]dir[/B][/COLOR]
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 843C-52A5

 Directory of C:\gnexfix

12/25/2011  10:21 PM    <DIR>          .
12/25/2011  10:21 PM    <DIR>          ..
[COLOR=Blue]12/25/2011  10:27 PM    <DIR>          mysid-icl53f
12/25/2011  10:18 PM       198,691,962 mysid-icl53f-factory-65895fa8.tgz[/COLOR]
               1 File(s)    198,691,962 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  454,956,482,560 bytes free

C:\gnexfix>[COLOR=purple][B]cd mysid-icl53f[/B][/COLOR]

C:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f>[COLOR=purple][B]dir[/B][/COLOR]
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 843C-52A5

 Directory of C:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f

12/25/2011  10:27 PM    <DIR>          .
12/25/2011  10:27 PM    <DIR>          ..
[COLOR=blue]12/09/2011  07:04 PM         2,363,392 bootloader-toro-primekk15.img
12/09/2011  07:04 PM               917 flash-all.sh
12/09/2011  07:04 PM       194,211,522 [B][COLOR=Red]image-mysid-icl53f.zip[/COLOR][/B]
12/09/2011  07:04 PM         3,802,224 radio-cdma-toro-i515.ek05.img
12/09/2011  07:04 PM        10,748,160 radio-toro-i515.ek02.img[/COLOR]
               5 File(s)    211,126,215 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  454,956,482,560 bytes free

C:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f>

- Now, you should be able to use your zip utility to do an "extract" of the boot.img file from the image-mysid-icl53f.zip file

- Note: the MD5 checksum I get on my copy of the boot.img file is:

c611f34f539e7e668776e7aa87c39dbd *boot.img

- Okay, time to power your phone back up into fastboot mode (press (and hold) the volume-up and volume-down rocker while you press the power button); keep holding all three for a few seconds until you see the Android laying on his back with his chest-plate open

- Now that we have this file, we should just be able to flash it back to the boot partition:

[note: give a few seconds between each command and take note of its output/success]

++ first: check to see if you've still got USB connectivity:

C:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f>fastboot devices

(you should see something like your device's serial # being displayed)

++ next, let's do the actual reflash of your boot image:

C:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f>fastboot flash boot boot.img

++ finally, let's reboot the bootloader to see if that annoying error message you are getting has now gone away:

C:\gnexfix\mysid-icl53f>fastboot reboot-bootloader

Good luck and let me know!

Cheers!

pardon my ignorance, but how do I do a checksum to verify my file?

 

[scary alien]

pardon my ignorance, but how do I do a checksum to verify my file?

No problem...most downloads complete just fine, but when it comes to flashing files to your phone, you don't want to take any chances. Here's a thread we like to reference:

http://androidforums.com/faqs/443074-md5-verification.html

...and here are two utilities some have found useful for the Windows PC:

Download MD5 Checker 2.31 Free - A utility that can verify downloads with an MD5 checksum - Softpedia

Download the MD5summer

Cheers!

 

[hapyface07]

No problem...most downloads complete just fine, but when it comes to flashing files to your phone, you don't want to take any chances. Here's a thread we like to reference:

http://androidforums.com/faqs/443074-md5-verification.html

...and here are two utilities some have found useful for the Windows PC:

Download MD5 Checker 2.31 Free - A utility that can verify downloads with an MD5 checksum - Softpedia

Download the MD5summer

Cheers!

Thanks for the help. too tired now.. I'll try again tomorrow.

 

[hapyface07]

thanks for the help. Too tired now.. I'll try again tomorrow.

i tried one more time before bedtime and wholla! It worked! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! The boot image you refer me to worked! I'm back to the main android screen and i'm still rooted. Thanks again! I spent all day trying to fix this.. Merry late christmas bruce

 

[scary alien]

i tried one more time before bedtime and wholla! It worked! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! The boot image you refer me to worked! I'm back to the main android screen and i'm still rooted. Thanks again! I spent all day trying to fix this.. Merry late christmas bruce

Bruce,

You are most welcome, sir! I'm very pleased all is well .

Merry Christmas (56 minutes past, oh well ) to you, too!

Cheers,
Sean

 

[code1719]

Hey everyone, this is my first post. I have looked on here for the answer to my issue but it seems that I am the only unlucky person with this issue.

Ok, so here's the deal. I have this nice new Galaxy Nexus thats been sitting around for 3 weeks waiting to get rooted. So I started yesterday and have so far been SOL on the matter.

Method used : ClockWorkMod for GSM
Phone used : Samsung Galaxy Nexus ICS 4.0.1

First Issue - everything went great up until it came time to adb push, so I first started with the one that scary alien reported showed up for him, well that wasn't the case here, so I did "./adb push su.zip /sdcard/ and sure enough showed up ...now when i do the install from sd card I see an installation aborted issue.....hmmm ok well wait, I'm on a mac and it does that auto unzip so when I downloaded su.zip I recreated the archive and went at it again, same problem. After this I used ESFileExplorer to check out this su.zip and inside the zip was a MacOSX folder as well so i go and fix that so only the meta-inf, system and the other zip are in the su.zip

Now I see this error on recovery.log

I:Checking for extendedcommand...
I:Skipping execution of extendedcommand, file not found...
I:using /data/media, no /sdcard found.
I:using /data/media, no /sdcard found.

-- Installing: /sdcard/su.zip
Finding update package...
I:Update location: /sdcard/su.zip
I:using /data/media, no /sdcard found.
Opening update package...
Installing update...
Archive:  /sdcard/su.zip
   creating: META-INF/
unzip: zip flags 1 and 8 are not supported
cp: can't stat 'system/*': No such file or directory
chmod: /system/bin/su: No such file or directory
E:Error in /sdcard/su.zip
(Status 1)
Installation aborted

.

At this point in time I am pretty much taking shots in the dark, but figured posting on here would be a better choice. Im wondering if maybe I screwed everything up by doing that first ./adb push su.zip /data/media

Any feedback would be great