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

[nrabett]

My SGN is arriving in a few days, and my main reason for rooting is the ability to install Ubuntu on the phone as per this guide:

[APP][1.6+] Ubuntu Install Guide - Testers wanted - xda-developers

Apart from this, I might use one or two apps that require root access on my HTC Desire (Transparent proxies, VNC and SSH servers).

If I understand the posts in this thread correctly, I should use the "soft" CWM approach in order to install the su binaries without altering the stock recovery partition. This should enable future ICS updates from Google without loosing root access.

Are there any disadvantages of using this method instead of flashing the CWM recovery? I have never used CWM on a phone with a stock ROM, but I remember updating CM7 directly through the app. Would this also be possible with stock ICS updates?

 

[scary alien]

My SGN is arriving in a few days, and my main reason for rooting is the ability to install Ubuntu on the phone as per this guide:

[APP][1.6+] Ubuntu Install Guide - Testers wanted - xda-developers

Apart from this, I might use one or two apps that require root access on my HTC Desire (Transparent proxies, VNC and SSH servers).

If I understand the posts in this thread correctly, I should use the "soft" CWM approach in order to install the su binaries without altering the stock recovery partition. This should enable future ICS updates from Google without loosing root access.

Are there any disadvantages of using this method instead of flashing the CWM recovery? I have never used CWM on a phone with a stock ROM, but I remember updating CM7 directly through the app. Would this also be possible with stock ICS updates?

Welcome to the AndroidForums, nrabett.

I'll take a peek at that Ubuntu thread here in a bit (I've got it installed on a laptop that I'd like to learn how to get things connected and rooted from there (I tried making the USB connections the first weekend after launch, but didn't have too much luck)).

Well, soft-booting CWM will indeed keep your stock recovery intact and will allow an OTA to be applied without having to flash your recovery back to stock (not a really hard task, by the way). The OTA will come in to your phone and you could delay its installation until you've had a chance to re-flash the stock recovery.

You'd mostly want to flash CWM if you plan on needing to have access to CWM away from your computer--although you could always quickly flash CWM via ROM Manager, too in a pinch.

Not having a stock recovery on my phone doesn't worry me one bit since there's a couple of ways to re-flash back to stock (and its especially easy if you have to get the CWM install to "stick" by having to rename your /system/recovery-from-boot.p file (you'd simply rename it back to its original name and Android will automatically re-flash the stock recovery for you).

Hope that helps .

Cheers!

 

[scary alien]

i downloaded all the proper sdk tools and usb files (the naked one)
and my cmd is still not recognizing my device when i use the fastboot devices command

Welcome to the AndroidForums, hondaap1.

Check out this post re. installing the USB drivers:

http://androidforums.com/verizon-galaxy-nexus-all-things-root/474570-how-all-things-root-samsung-galaxy-nexus.html#post3736590

Its got a lot of detailed information inside the "Show" button.

Hope that helps...let us know.

Cheers!

 

[StevDwonk]

Hi i was wondering if any of you know what i did wrong ? i rooted the samsung galaxy nexus and everything went fine but when i go into recovery mode the little green man gets this big icon above him i found this stops me from flashing Rom's can you tell me what i have done wrong and what i can do to fix it
cheers thank alot!

 

[Yeahha]

Hi i was wondering if any of you know what i did wrong ? i rooted the samsung galaxy nexus and everything went fine but when i go into recovery mode the little green man gets this big icon above him i found this stops me from flashing Rom's can you tell me what i have done wrong and what i can do to fix it
cheers thank alot!

Welcome to AF StevDwonk!

I believe your recovery is either being rewritten as the stock recovery. Check /system to see if you have a "recovery-from-boot.p" file in there. If you have that file then CWM will not stick. I would suggest renaming it "recovery-from-boot.p.old" then flash CWM again and it should stick for you.

You can either flash CMW via fastboot or just download rom manager and let it flash it once you open it.

 

[bobak]

Scary Alien --- Thank you for the detailed instructions and different options for unlocking and rooting.

I read through this forum a few times and did the unlock/root yesterday. It was so simple and took 15 minutes including two backups, one before root and one after.

So I have a question for you:

I see that we have the option to either boot cwm or flash it so it becomes the on-device recovery. I chose to boot it since I should be able to get to my computer when I need to do any cwm work like installing a .zip etc...

So my question is after unlocking I booted into CWM and took a Backup before rooting and then rooted and took another backup.

Would my pre-root backup work if I wanted to restore to a pre root state?


Besides my question everything seems really clear to me. I did my root slightly different from the guides although I would consider what I did the first method (clockwork-Koush)

I ended up installing the GNex toolkit from WugFresh to check it out and noticed it setup drivers, and setup a directory with Fastboot and ADB plus the SU.Zip and Clockwork.img file so basically I used this to setup my system and directories and went from there.

At one point I had to manually select the driver for the bootloader interface but this was simple.


Thanks so much for your help.

 

[scary alien]

Scary Alien --- Thank you for the detailed instructions and different options for unlocking and rooting.

You are most welcome! I'm happy to have helped .

So I have a question for you:

I see that we have the option to either boot cwm or flash it so it becomes the on-device recovery. I chose to boot it since I should be able to get to my computer when I need to do any cwm work like installing a .zip etc...

So my question is after unlocking I booted into CWM and took a Backup before rooting and then rooted and took another backup.

Would my pre-root backup work if I wanted to restore to a pre root state?

Yes! Excellent analysis!

You could, even prior to rooting (like you said you did), simply soft-boot ClockworkMod and take an unrooted / stock snapshot of your phone via a Nandroid backup. You can then flash CWM and root, ROM, etc. to your heart's content.

Then, should you decide to "unroot" / return-to-stock at some point, you could simply re-invoke CWM and restore that "stock" Nandroid backup and you are back to where you were when the backup was made .

Thanks so much for your help.

No problem and welcome to the AndroidForums!

 

[susieq29]

The r3 superboot worked like a charm. I have a simple question. This is a temp root. When I power down the phone is no longer rooted. How do I reroot the phone? I do not see any file or apk on my phone to click on to reroot.
Do I need to download file again to root?

 

[scary alien]

The r3 superboot worked like a charm. I have a simple question. This is a temp root. When I power down the phone is no longer rooted. How do I reroot the phone? I do not see any file or apk on my phone to click on to reroot.
Do I need to download file again to root?

susieq, it should be a permanent root...it auto-installs the su binary and the Superuser.apk whitelist app (which should be in the app drawer).

Check your app drawer for the "Superuser" application to see if its really there or not.

You can also download and install the "Android Terminal Emulator" app (free in the Market). Start it up and enter "su" (no quotes, of course). If your prompt changes from "$" to "#", you are indeed rooted.

Cheers!

 

[StevDwonk]

Welcome to AF StevDwonk!

I believe your recovery is either being rewritten as the stock recovery. Check /system to see if you have a "recovery-from-boot.p" file in there. If you have that file then CWM will not stick. I would suggest renaming it "recovery-from-boot.p.old" then flash CWM again and it should stick for you.

You can either flash CMW via fastboot or just download rom manager and let it flash it once you open it.

THanks for the welcome and thanks so much for the help but i have looked and cant seem to find it not sure if im looking in right place though would you mind helping thanks

 

[riverboat2001]

So far, i've followed your instructions to the letter.
But, i'm confused about removing the android device from the "other" devices part of device manager.

Once I've removed the device, it then disappears and i cannot then "see" it to update the driver!

What am i doing wrong?

Changed to a different USB port on laptop then it found the correct driver.

 

[Flavoristic]

Can you guide me to how to unroot and restore my G-nexus yakjuux 4.0.1 from bell to stock? since i cant find the stock image.

 

[minibee041]

Anyone tried xda method for vodafone uk gsm nexus? http:// http://www.xda-developers.com/android/galaxy-nexus-toolkit-updated-to-3-0-new-one-click-everything/ if not applicable could you point me in the general direction of root procedure for uk vodafone gsm or is it the same as any gsm phone? If same i will try the method at start of this thread. Apologies Scary if in wrong thread, please feel free to move.

 

[nrabett]

Got the phone today and rooted without problems.

Suggestion for a small improvement in the instructions for Linux users: I tried both the mini-SDK and the linked Android SDK versions of fastbood and adb. Whereas I could connect to my today unrooted HTC Desire as a regular Ubuntu user, I had to sudo my way into the new phone - both on Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.10. When trying as a normal user, the daemon started, but adb and fastboot got stuck "detecting device" and "waiting for device". (As a matter of fact, Ubuntu 10.10 with the mini-SDK adb was able to detect a device without sudo, but with "???????????????" instead of the serial number.)

 

[scary alien]

Got the phone today and rooted without problems.

Suggestion for a small improvement in the instructions for Linux users: I tried both the mini-SDK and the linked Android SDK versions of fastbood and adb. Whereas I could connect to my today unrooted HTC Desire as a regular Ubuntu user, I had to sudo my way into the new phone - both on Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.10. When trying as a normal user, the daemon started, but adb and fastboot got stuck "detecting device" and "waiting for device". (As a matter of fact, Ubuntu 10.10 with the mini-SDK adb was able to detect a device without sudo, but with "???????????????" instead of the serial number.)

Thanks and glad you got successfully rooted!

I'll make a note for the Linux instructions that a sudo prefix on the commands might be necessary (and I'll test things tonight on my Linux boot on my laptop to make sure I get the syntax right ).

Cheers!

 

[Flavoristic]

Hi,

scary alien your guide is pretty much neat. However, i faced difficulties while trying to stick my CWM. I have followed your steps to do so but without fix. I went to /system/recovery-from-boot.p and renamed it to /system/recovery-from-boot.p-bak, fastbooted to recovery and still red exclamation droid thingy. Please help

 

[Flavoristic]

Welcome to AF StevDwonk!

I believe your recovery is either being rewritten as the stock recovery. Check /system to see if you have a "recovery-from-boot.p" file in there. If you have that file then CWM will not stick. I would suggest renaming it "recovery-from-boot.p.old" then flash CWM again and it should stick for you.

You can either flash CMW via fastboot or just download rom manager and let it flash it once you open it.

Ohhhh Yeaahha that pretty much solved my issue ... thanks to you and to scary . You guys are awesome

 

[Hipe0ples555]

Don't need to have that pain of starting over again! just use my method of backing up, almost as if you never wiped your beloved Galaxy Nexus!
http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus/480673-backup-restore-without-root-galaxy-nexus-mac.html

 

[mbrig120]

I'm having trouble installing the drivers for fastboot.

I'm on Win7 64-bit. I have the verizon GNexus So i plug the GNexus into the computer and boot it in fastboot mode, the windows automatic hardware pops up and installs some drivers. I then go to device manager and it shows up under Portable Devices. Right click on it and click update driver software, click on the file I unzipped from the naked 1.7 driver link, and it says windows has determined that the software for your device is up to date(it's listed as MTP USB Device there). So I then try the let me pick from a list of drivers, click have disk, and click on the driver folder again. Then it says "The folder you specified doesn't contain a compatible software driver for your device. If the folder contains a driver, make sure it is designed to work with Windows for x64-based
systems."

I'm stumped, I tried different USB ports and different cables. Also, if I try to uninstall the drivers it just disappears from device manager, and when I scan for hardware changes it just pops up again and I get the same issue

 

[scary alien]

I'm having trouble installing the drivers for fastboot.

I'm on Win7 64-bit. I have the verizon GNexus So i plug the GNexus into the computer and boot it in fastboot mode, the windows automatic hardware pops up and installs some drivers. I then go to device manager and it shows up under Portable Devices. Right click on it and click update driver software, click on the file I unzipped from the naked 1.7 driver link, and it says windows has determined that the software for your device is up to date(it's listed as MTP USB Device there). So I then try the let me pick from a list of drivers, click have disk, and click on the driver folder again. Then it says "The folder you specified doesn't contain a compatible software driver for your device. If the folder contains a driver, make sure it is designed to work with Windows for x64-based
systems."

I'm stumped, I tried different USB ports and different cables. Also, if I try to uninstall the drivers it just disappears from device manager, and when I scan for hardware changes it just pops up again and I get the same issue

mbrig120,

I'm not currently in a position to follow-along on my Win 7 64-bit desktop that's at home (I'm still at work), but have a look at both of these links:

How to install the adb & fastboot USB drivers (MS/Windows users only)

http://androidforums.com/verizon-galaxy-nexus-all-things-root/480632-im-going-make-hardest-part-rooting-easy-newbs-right-here-yup-i-am.html

Hopefully, there'll be something in one of those posts that will fix you up.

Let us know!

Cheers!

 

[mbrig120]

I tried doing everything I can on both of those links to no avail. The verizon phone is cdma correct? I found [EASIER ROOT TOOLKIT] Wugfresh Galaxy Nexus Root Toolkit Easier - xda-developers which looks really useful, I'm gonna try that out.

 

[scary alien]

I tried doing everything I can on both of those links to no avail. The verizon phone is cdma correct? I found [EASIER ROOT TOOLKIT] Wugfresh Galaxy Nexus Root Toolkit Easier - xda-developers which looks really useful, I'm gonna try that out.

Yes, VZW is CDMA / LTE...

I have heard that Wug's newest version of that tool is pretty slick and works very well...

Good luck!

By the way, welcome to the AndroidForums! (sorry, forgot that in my first reply )

 

[thehybridkiwi]

I downloaded the "slightly easier method" package for rooting my Android. Contained within is a file called boot.img. I know what purpose it serves, but what is its source? Is there an opensource reference for this file? Where can I obtain it independently?

 

[scary alien]

I downloaded the "slightly easier method" package for rooting my Android. Contained within is a file called boot.img. I know what purpose it serves, but what is its source? Is there an opensource reference for this file? Where can I obtain it independently?

thehybridkiwi,

The boot.img file is the system boot image, i.e., it contains the kernel and the parts of the operating system for doing the initial boot-up of Android and your installed apps.

This particular (insecure) boot.img file was tweaked to allow updates to the / (root) and /system partitions so that the root binaries (su and Superuser.apk) could be installed. Don't be alarmed about the word "insecure"--in this case, this boot image only differs from the original one in a single, simple setting (ro.secure=0) in the default.prop file to allow the partitions to have write access.

Yes, the source code for all of this is freely-available to you. Start here for learning how to do this: Initializing a Build Environment | Android Open Source

Cheers and good luck!

 

[gapi]

I am coming into this in the middle so if this does not apply........ but what you are saying reminds me of something.

I am Win7 x64 Pro. With the phone USB disconnected the driver thing on the PC went fine.

Now........ Connected via USB,

When I was (Trying To) root for the 1st time I would get the "waiting for device" message in adb and the driver issues you speak of.

So I left it sitting right there with the USB connected and went into device manager and reloaded the drivers and BAM! It took. I looked at the adb window and the waiting was gone and the device was listed.

?