[HACKS] Root Droid 1 - regardless of OS version

[viper3773]

so if you want everything to work right, do it yourself right?

 

[nxmehta]

Hey motocache, quick Q, did anyone ever elaborate on the downsides of the 1 click rooting? I am very curious as I will be able to do it the regular way but if I can do it 1 click without any repossessions then i will do that

I don't think anyone has in this thread, so I'll put my two cents in, and if you think I've missed something, please add. Also, please note, this only applies to the Droid 1.

One-click rooting apps give you root access and nothing more. Some of them encourage you to install Busybox, which is required by 90% of rooted apps, but allows you no way to update it. This alone is an issue, and since you can download a busybox installer from the market that will keep your version of busybox up to date you should do that instead.

These apps might then encourage you to install ROM Manager, which is an awesome app for most people, but in a small but significant number of installs it starts borking downloads, losing backups, glitching, and in some cases messing up your recovery image. It's often not worth the hassle. Furthermore, with the updated bootloader many people got from the OTA FRG01B update, you cannot flash your recovery image without using MotoCache1's method of rooting.

None of the one-click apps block OTA updates, which always break root, rendering your phone stock again. Often stock with the rooting app not working until an update comes out. Yes, CW and SPRecovery will block these updates, but it's only a matter of time before that nag screen comes back. It gets tiresome, and it uses bandwidth every time the update downloads. This also might be a concern to some.

Without a custom recovery image (CW or SPRecovery), you cannot flash a ROM, install a custom kernel, theme, or make nandroid/clockwork backups, which become a vital part of messing with your Droid.

Finally, some of them are free while others cost money -- and the method outlined herein is free, as permanent as you want it to be, and unless you pull the cable out or lose power during the flash, foolproof and safe. The unless is the key word there, though. And nobody here, especially me, claims responsibility for any damage done to the software or hardware of your phone for following this or any set of instructions or guides.

I think that covers it, but I might have missed something or misstated something. Anyone have anything else? Please add, correct, or ask.

This is a great post. This should be stickied or put in the original post or something. The other thing I would add is that one click root apps essentially depend upon exploiting security holes in Android. Because of this, they are very likely to be closed every time Android is updated (hence, EasyRoot and Universal Androot don't work with FRG22D). So you are playing a never ending cat and mouse game, much like the iPhone jailbreak community.

Using a proper flashing technique as described in this thread, on the other hand, so far as we know will work on any OS.

 

[viper3773]

I agree with the above post

 

[MotoCache1]

Maybe I am missing something but the confusing line for me was this one:

"If you caught the boot in Step 10 and went straight back into the bootloader without booting the OS in between, skip Step 12 and go to Step 13."

Thanks for the work you have done on this. I am very appreciative.

Thanks for sticking with this until I understood your point. Step #11 was messed up due to a prior rewording. When I originally wrote it it was somewhat convoluted and had you pre-read before doing a step and then come back, etc. Acting on someone else's great suggestion I streamlined it, but had to make some pretty big phrasing changes to make it work. Step #11 still had some old material in it. Now step #11 reads simply:

11. You should now be looking at the bootloader on the phone, and RSD Lite should still be saying "Phone[0000]: Phone is being rebooted". If too much time has passed RSD Lite may be saying "Please manually boot the phone". The "Progress" value on the screen will keep incrementing, and at some point before, or at, 100% the result should change to "PASS".

Please let me know if anything else is fouled up.

 

[MotoCache1]

Hey motocache, quick Q, did anyone ever elaborate on the downsides of the 1 click rooting? I am very curious as I will be able to do it the regular way but if I can do it 1 click without any repossessions then i will do that

Not here in this topic, but it might make for a lively discussion as a complete thread of its own. Everything has a downside. I don't really do "1 click" anything. Here are my thoughts for what it is worth. (You never know how long the reply from me may be -- even when asking a seemingly simple question.)

Let's start with this for a downside -- what else is the one-click app doing to your phone? Understand, I'm not making accusations, just asking the question. When you root the way I've presented in the OP, all Superuser access (while your phone booted to the main OS) has to be granted by you from the Superuser.apk popup. When you root any other way, the app doing the rooting has unfettered God mode over your phone (presumably or else how did it root it?). Do you have anything on your phone that you might not want that app to have access to? Too bad. One app I played with won't activate without Internet access. I sniffer traced it and it's not doing anything naughty with that access (in this version, at the time I checked it -- what about the next version -- what about at 2am when you're not running your sniffer trace?). You could say that my packages are a "black box" to you too and how do you know what they are doing? The difference is that the one-click apps are compiled apps and you don't have the source code. However, if you split my SBF file (plenty of SBF splitters out there) you'll find that the only image in it is the SPRecovery 0.99.3b image direct from DroidMod.org. It's the exact same image that's in ESE81_SPRecovery (minus the ESE81 kernel of course). Does SPRecovery have any secrets in it? It could -- but just about every rooted user has run that image at some point, and nobody has found an unknown exploit in it yet. I have disassembled the package as well, and other than the security holes it opens on purpose (root access via ADB while recovery is booted, etc.) I haven't found anything. The update.zip is even more transparent. If you unzip it you can browse to the directory where the updater-script file is and read the exact steps it is going to perform and look at the binaries (su, Superuser.apk, and busybox) that it is going to put on. Every binary is from a public distribution -- with source code available. So, that's the first thing.

Second, as someone pointed out, getting root and keeping root are two different things. Once you root you need to put on a custom recovery to block OTA updates, and you need to disable Flash Recovery Service if your phone has it active. You can certainly do that other ways if you know to. If you don't, and you take a 2.2 OTA, and your one-click app doesn't work with 2.2 (lots of people in that boat as of today), then what are you going to do?

Which brings me to my last point. When you use the one-click app you're just as lost and ignorant when you're done as you were when you started. I don't mean that as an insult. Stupid is a qualitative assessment of a person. Ignorant is a present condition of lack of knowledge. Generally one is changeable and the other not-so-much. Anyway, after your one-click, sure, you've got root, but what did you learn? Do you know how you got it? Do you know why it worked? Do you know where to look if it stops working? Do you know what to do to if you need to do it again and the one-click no longer works? With the packages in this topic: a) it should always work because the only thing it is "exploiting" is the fact that this phone (the Droid 1) has no mechanism to prevent flashing the recovery of your choice. Once you flash the recovery of your choice the rest is academic. And then b) since you can take apart everything in these two packages and see what's inside (you can even take apart the SPRecovery image after you extract it and see what files make it up if you like) you can completely understand what it does and how it does it.

Researching to figure out how to take these things apart and truly understand them is a great learning experience. I did it (for the very first time, not very long ago) and look at the fun things I can do now. Granted, not everybody wants to know how their car engine works. Lots of folks just want to stick the key in and drive and if it stops working some day, they'll pay someone who understands it to fix it for them. That's cool and I get it -- but it's not me. If I don't know how something that is important to my day to day activities works, then I'm dependent upon someone else in order to be able to enjoy those activities or capabilities or whatever. Being dependent on other people sucks and I make a habit of doing it to the bare minimum extent necessary. But I'm crazy like that.

Here's a brief timeline of my journey with the Droid. Seventeen days ago I didn't know how a single bit of this stuff worked. I'd never taken apart an update.zip, and SBF files were something made by the Motorola gods that mortals used but didn't dare think about really understanding. I knew what "root" was in Unix/Linux, but I had no idea what components made it happen in a Droid.

About 15 hours later I made my first update.zip type package to help SPRecovery users that were stuck in the same spot I was -- they couldn't run the latest package by the Superuser author because it didn't work with SPRecovery. Honestly the fact that nobody could answer my question back on 8/11 was a wonderful gift of odd sorts. I wasn't content to be dependent upon someone else to make their package work for my phone -- heck, it might never happen. So I figured it out for myself.

Six days later (8/17) I stumbled into a topic where someone had asked about making their own SBF. The replies didn't offer much hope of success. But a brief time with Google and I posted that it seemed at least reasonable that a mortal could do it. Less than 10 hours after that I had modified my first SBF. I changed ESE81_SPRecovery so it would flash on Clockwork instead. Less than 8 hours later I had made a complete custom, full-flash SBF with modified system partition (rooted), custom recovery, etc.

Now 17 days have elapsed since I didn't know anything about how any of this works. I've made some kinda neat tools that some people have found fairly helpful, and I've also learned more about this phone than anybody should probably know. I try to write up everything I know in a way that those who want to understand it can do so. There is very little left in this phone that holds much mystery at this point. Of course the solution to that is to get a new phone that I don't know anything about and see what problem comes my way.

Anyway, the moral of this long rambling post is that if the Superuser package would have just worked on SPRecovery back on 8/11, I might still not know anything about how any of this works. Then again I might -- who knows -- but as long as you're willing to use black boxes that keep the best part of the magic hidden inside as a secret, it's tough to really expand your knowledge and skills.

Then again, I'd probably get a hell of a lot more sleep that way. Look at the time -- I'm East coast and it's pretty far into the new day.

Anyway, this post probably sounds stupid or condescending or preachy or all of the above and more. It wasn't meant that way. Your question (which was a perfectly fine question) just kind of gave me the opening to expound upon something that has been knocking around in my head each day as I see so many folks who really don't understand the little glowing box of magic they hold in their hands. Some really want to understand, and others just want to benefit from the magic. Neither is right or wrong, but if you're the one who wants to control the magic instead of just wield it (hoping the magic doesn't just stop working as quickly as it came), then a one-click app is your worst enemy.

Thus endeth the sermon.

 

[Twitch043]

^ That was awesome, moto. This coming from someone who just yesterday tried and had problems with the one-click method, and was directed straight to your topic. (I don't know of it was by you, but still) After 15 minutes I had used your method and was fine.



Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[DroidFan88]

Fantastic! Other than the timing issue, this is a piece of cake. I missed the APPS2SD function the most as part of root so that was the main reason I wanted it back. So now I have a fully up to date FRG22D OS with root.

Thanks, Moto....dancedroid

 

[jasonppp]

moto hope you dont mind but i added this thread to my sig very well layed out instructions good job

 

[furbearingmammal]

Kicks my answer's butt.

 

[viper3773]

nice reply motocache thanks !

 

[zinethar]

OK I just did another person's phone and discovered I made an error here. The problem leaving the phone plugged into the computer was not where I had 'misremembered' to quote Roger C. It was much farther down the line and was just dumb on my part. I had no issues this time.

 

[gavron]

Awesome - thank you for explaining the mystery! Linux SBF works

E

THANK YOU Moto, Thank you Stannenb!

I have successfully flashed the _correct_ recovery SBF with no ill effects.

Ubuntu 9.10 i386 live (USB stick)
./sbf_flash MC1_A855_1282081087_Recovery-Only_SPRecovery_0.99.3b.sbf

Flashed a recovery that
a. Works normally (regular SPrecovery)!!!
b. No ill effects (WiFi good, USB good, charging good, ADB good)

This is painless and very good!

The morals of this story:
1. Put the droid in bootloader mode (Dpad UP plus power on)
2. Use the image in the first post of this forum (MC1... as per above)

Thank you

E
P.S. I didn't NEED to flash anything. I was just testing the process.

 

[JediSaber]

First, I'd like to give a HUGE Thank You to MotoCache1 for an awesome step-by-step procedure to root the Droid. I'd also like to thank all the other members for sharing their thoughts and ideas on stream-lining the steps for easier understanding.

After doing as much research as I could on rooting (and not bricking a $600 phone), I feel confident in jumping forward towards having total control over something I own anyway.

One question I do have and I apologize in advance if it was already answered in here or in another thread (I did search but didn't find anything)... Once I root my phone by following the steps in post #1, are all my apps, games, game saves, notes, files, etc. still going to be on my phone or will I have to redownload/install everything again?

Second question: If I install a custom ROM (such as Sapphire 1.0) which requires a full data wipe, is there a way to reinstall all my apps, games, saves, etc. using a prior nandroid backup or, again, am I stuck reloading everything manually?

Thanks for your help & input.

 

[stannenb]

For the record, this process successfully rooted a Droid running FRG22D.

Thank you Moto for this truly excellent work.

Would it be unkind of me to hope that your questions remain unanswered so you stay motivated?

 

[Miniblue]

Everything seemed to go well with the root until I chose "Install /sdcard/update.zip (depreciated)"

It opened the update package, verified and started installing and then the installation aborted.

Any idea what I may have done wrong?

Thanks,
Bill