14 DAY TRIAL // On Tuesday, the first permanent root was announced as being available for the T-Mobile G2, following a long series of unsuccessful attempts. While the process was initially tested only on G2, it appears that other Android smartphones from HTC can be rooted the very same way, including the new HTC Desire HD and Desire Z, as well as the T-Mobile myTouch 4G.
The new rooting process, applicable to both Desire HD and Desire Z devices, as Android Australia notes in a recent article, is different than what we already reported on for T-Mobile G2, though is said to be safer than the previously available method.
While that method required for the VISIONary application to be installed on the device, the new process needs to be done without it, and even recommends the full uninstall of that solution.
Users would also need Android Terminal Emulator app, ADB, and to download the vision-combined-root.zip from this post on XDA-Developers, as well as the G2TempRoot.zip and vision-perm-root.zip from the forum.
As with all the other rooting processes, the new one would void warranty of the handsets, not to mention that it might brick them in case something goes wrong. Users trying to root their devices would do so at their own risk.
First of all, users would need to make sure that they have the said files downloaded, and then start the entire rooting process. After that, they would need to gain temp root access on their handsets.
After unzipping the G2TempRoot files to a folder, one would have to open a cmd window or terminal, then navigate to the respective folder and execute the following commands:
adb push su /sdcard/su adb push Superuser.apk /sdcard/Superuser.apk adb push rage /data/local/tmp/rage adb push busybox /data/local/tmp/busybox adb push root /data/local/tmp/root adb shell chmod 0755 /data/local/tmp/
On the handset, one would then have to Launch Terminal Emulator, go to /data/local/tmp/rage, and wait for the “Forked #### childs” message to appear.
The next step is Menu > Reset Term, with the Terminal Emulator closing, followed by the launch of the Emulator, which will force close the first time. When launched again, it will give a root shell. The window will remain opened.
Next, one would want to gain perm root on the device, which involves unzipping the vision-perm-root.zip and navigating to the folder on the computer.
In that folder, one will find four files. Two of them would have to be pushed to phone- hboot-eng.img, along with wpthis-OTA.ko, in case the OTA update was applied, or wpthis-pre-OTA.ko, if the update was not applied:
adb push hboot-eng.img /data/local adb push wpthis-OTA.ko /data/local As soon as these commands were performed on the computer, one would have to introduce additional commands on the phone.
With the Terminal Emulator window still opened on the handset, one should run insmod /data/local/wpthis-OTA.ko, which will return the following message: init_module 'wpthis-OTA.ko' failed (Function not implemented).
The next step needs be done very carefully, as it could harm the device.
Users would have to run: dd if=/data/local/hboot-eng.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p18 [note that the partition is mmcblk(zero)p(one)(eight)]
After receiving a message that it was written, one would have to run /data/local/tmp/root, and then sync. The first command will lock in root and offer 'su' access in the future.
After the last command was introduced, one should wait for about one minute, and then reboot the device using the power button.
As soon as the handset is powered back on, the root access can be verified through launching the Terminal Emulator, and typing 'su', which would return a prompt asking to grant permission.
All the necessary files to gain root access using this method are available on this thread on the XDA-Developers forum.