[Q] Acer Iconia B1 A71 Root

Windows Guide to Root Iconia B1 A71

STOP STOP STOP
entonJackson Has Made your lives easier and created a tool to do all of the work for you no need to follow this guide unless
you just want to learn a little about adb (how to connect to and send commands to your iconia) if your not interestred then

grab this One Click installer for Root - Iconia B1-A71 By etonjackson

Check which version you have on Iconia by going to settings / about and download or update to version AV051.B1-A71.RV05RC05.WW.GEN1 first it must be
AV051.B1-A71.RV05RC05.WW.GEN1 to use this tool and image

you will also need to grab the pre rooted image file by alba81 AV051.B1-A71.RV05RC05.WW.GEN1 system.img.gz

please do not forget to say THANKS to Etonjackson ' alba81 and pawitp without whom nothing would be possible

etonjackson also has a donation link if you feel his tool has helped you please click here

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This is possible thanks to the work done by pawitp and alba81 and others from the XDAdevelopers forums
special thanks to acer dev guy 29 who's post prompted me to do this my way

i have just written it out into a idiots guide for windows
and have un rooted my iconia so i could follow my guide by cut n pasting to make sure 100% it works
i have re gained root so i know it is as perfect as i can make it. i have added a few notes when i ran into
problems and how i resolved them .

Check which version you have in settings / about and download update to newest version first

download these files this a tools folder containing the adb and other files needed to root iconia
mirror site for tools.rar
extract it here c:\tools

USB drivers from acer

Install the USB drivers

if you have the AV051.B1-A71.RV04RC04.WW.GEN1 update to new version AV051.B1-A71.RV05RC05.WW.GEN1

then download the newest version AV051.B1-A71.RV05RC05.WW.GEN1 system.img.gz also made by alba81 and put it into the c:\tools folder



then follow the steps below

install this on the iconia before you start from the play store (its Free)

ExDialer

all the RED lines below that give commands can be cut and pasted into the dos box to make it easier and press enter after you enter them

the Blue lines are what you enter on the iconia when asked

connect iconia to pc with usb lead
make sure in iconia settings developer options debug mode is ticked

goto the tools folder mines at c:\tools

run the cmd.exe (double click it to run) in tools this will open a black dos box , in there type

adb devices (press enter)

you should see a response like this

C:\tools>adb devices
* daemon not running. starting
* daemon started successfully
List of devices attached
0123456789ABCDEF device


ok we can now type this

adb push C:\tools\busybox /data/local/tmp (press enter)

type in adb shell (press enter)

you will see this in the black box

shell@android:/ $

type in chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/busybox (press enter)

run Exdialer app on iconia and enter this like a phone number when you enter the last * it will auto open Engineermode on iconia

*#*#3646633#*#*

when iconia opens engineermode screen goto menu items -> Connectivity -> CDS Information -> Network Utility, then type in
the top line on the iconia
/data/local/tmp/busybox telnetd -l /system/bin/sh -p 1234 (press the RUN button) you will also see the word SHELL next to it

go back to the pc black dos window and type

you will see this in the black box

shell@android:/ $

then type /data/local/tmp/busybox telnet 127.0.0.1 1234 (press enter)
you should see this

Entering character mode
Escape character is '^]'.

IF YOU SEE THIS
C:\tools>adb shell
shell@android:/ $ /data/local/tmp/busybox telnet 127.0.0.1 1234
/data/local/tmp/busybox telnet 127.0.0.1 1234

Entering character mode
Escape character is '^]'.

Connection closed by foreign host
1|shell@android:/ $

then stop and reset your iconia with pin in reset hole next to power button
when it restarts turn off developer mode and turn it back on then re tick the usb debugging
then type in adb devices to ensure adb can see your device if it can then go back to the part
where you run Exdialer app on iconia and re-enter that part and you should see

Entering character mode
Escape character is '^]'.

system@android:/ $

type in chmod 777 /cache (press enter)

then type ^D thats CTRL + D ( press enter)

it will show this
Connection closed by foreign host
1|shell@android:/ $
Then type exit (press enter)

you should now see C:\tools> in the black box

Then type adb push system.img.gz /cache (press enter)

now wait as its copying the file to the iconia this takes a while
you see something like

C:\tools>adb push system.img.gz /cache
4133 KB/s (357214476 bytes in 84.400s)

the time mine took was 84 secs may vary by machine ok

then type adb shell (press enter)

you will see this in the black box

shell@android:/ $

now type /data/local/tmp/busybox telnet 127.0.0.1 1234 (press enter)

you should see system@android:/ $

then copy and paste this line.

/data/local/tmp/busybox zcat /cache/system.img.gz | dd of=/dev/block/mmcblk0 bs=4096 seek=8424 count=156928 (press enter)

and again wait as its writing the information to the iconia this can take a while
you should see something like this when its done

cache/system.img.gz | dd of=/dev/block/mmcblk0 bs=4096 seek=8424
156928+0 records in
156928+0 records out
642777088 bytes transferred in 69.046 secs (9309403 bytes/sec)
system@android:/ $

after its finished Reset your tablet with a pin in reset hole and restart it

Install Superuser app from Play Store by ChainsDD

after its installed run it once

i then installed
Root Checker

run it to confirm root

i hope you have rooted device after all this.. possible known errors and there fixes

found by KrameX

if you have any problems with it bootlooping or stuck on iconia boot screen for 10mins then something went wrong
go to acer drivers download section and download the rom in zip format:

Acer Recovery Image

this is a zip file, but inside are 2 files, a PDF file and another ZIP. this second zip must be copied to a microSD card, and insert it into the microsd slot in bottom of tablet.
Enter in to recovery mode, pressing volume UP and power button. you will see 3 options, choose "update from SD" and press power button. now you are in recovery mode, press volume down or up to select "apply update from SD card" and press power button, now choose the ZIP file that you copied to SD and press power button. this will install the original and updates OS files.

In recovery mode optionally can do "Wipe factory defaults" and "format cache partition" if install alone doesn't work

OTA = over the air , to check goto iconia settings , about , system updates and click check

After that do a OTA update to version Acer_AV051_B1-A71_RV04RC04_WW_GEN1
and then check for a 2nd OTA update to take you to version Acer_AV051_B1-A71_RV05RC05_WW_GEN1

found by acer dev guy 29
Permission denied zcat: write: Broken pipe
if you download alba81's image with chrome the download may get corupted use IE or Firefox

found by alba81
some who use XP and Linux
if you have a problem with busybox there is another that may solve the issue Busybox
the one in the tools folder is 665kb this one is 1meg approx so replace the one in the tools folder with the new one .

Okay, after getting my tablet repaired by Acer, I've successfully obtained root. The method, however, is very complicated and you should not try it unless you know what you are doing as you can risk permanently bricking your device if you typed a command incorrectly. Nevertheless, for informational purposes, I will outline it here.

THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, MORE DANGEROUS THAN ANY OTHER DEVICES YOU HAVE EVER ROOTED. DO NOT FOLLOW THIS IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOUR TABLET.

- Push a copy of busybox to /data/local/tmp and make sure it's executable
- From *#*#ENGMODE#*#* -> Connectivity -> CDS Information -> Network Utility, execute "/data/local/tmp/busybox telnetd -l /system/bin/sh -p 1234"
- adb shell and then "/data/local/tmp/busybox telnet 127.0.0.1 1234", you now have a system shell
- to get partition information, use "cat /proc/dumchar_info"
- MAKE SURE IT HAS THIS EXACT LINE. IF NOT, RECALCULATE THE ADDRESS FOR ALL COMMANDS BELOW
android 0x0000000026500000 0x00000000020e8000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p3
- dump system partition to /cache with "dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 bs=4096 skip=8424 count=156928 | gzip > /cache/system.img.gz"
- "chmod 777 /cache" and "chmod 777 /cache/system.img.gz" to allow adb to download the image
- "adb pull /cache/system.img.gz" to download the image to your computer, then gunzip it
- "rm /cache/system.img.gz" to make room on the cache partition
- Using a linux computer, loop mount the system.img to add /system/bin/su from the Superuser package (http://androidsu.com/superuser/) and suid it (06755)
- Unmount system.img then gzip it back to system.img.gz
- adb push system.img.gz back to /cache
- Flash the system image back to the partition with "/data/local/tmp/busybox zcat /cache/system.img.gz | dd of=/dev/block/mmcblk0 bs=4096 seek=8424 count=156928" WARNING: any mistake in typing this line may cost you your tablet, use copy and paste.
- Reboot your tablet
- Install Superuser app from Play Store

Good news!! friends.... who ever wants to increase the speaker volume of your Acer b1 tab .... here's what you need to do :

search on play store : dial pad, install n open it and dial *#*#3646633#*#*
Then go to Audio>Loudspeaker Mode>scroll down and change Max Value to 136 then press Set. Its done. Feel the drastic change Right now!!

Note** - If you want to set according to you, if you fear it might hamper the speaker at 136, then first play a song(keep playing it) and then open dial pad, enter the code and change the value and click set to see the change and set accordingly to how much more loud you want !!!

I suggest do not set it to more than 136 or 140 .

Enjhoy n press thanks!!

Ok, so this is how I rooted my Iconia B1 on Ubuntu Linux. This how-to is based on alba81s one. I only changed a few steps to make them work under Linux.

First download these few things:

• Android SDK
• SU Binary ( choose ARM and Binary only )
• Busybox Binary

1. Extract the android sdk to your home folder, e.g. /home/bob

2. Open a terminal.
3. Inside the extracted android sdk folder there must be somewhere a folder called platform-tools. CD to that one, Bob has a Linux 64 Bit System so for him it would be:

4. Now plug your Iconia B1 into your Linux machine and turn on Debugging Mode on it ( Go into Settings -> Developer Tools, turn on Developer tools, then turn on USB Debugging Mode )
5. Now back at the keyboard of your Linux machine in your terminal type:
The output should be something like:

0123456789ABCDEF device

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

If it's not, google for it. Somehow your Linux hasn't detected the Iconia B1, although the android sdk for Linux brings all needed drivers with it.
If your device was found, gratulations, you're a happy man. the adb connection between your linux machine and your tablet is intact.

5. Now extract the downloaded busybox archive to your home folder, in it there should be a busybox binary. So Bob does:
6. 7. 8.
9. Bob copied the busybox binary into a directory where he can access it as a plain non-root user on the tablet. We need this binary. so we can apply unix tools like telnet, dd, cat, etc. But for now we need it to establish a telnet session between our tablet and our linux machine. That's why we now start a telnet server on our tablet. Because this step is so easy, we skip it.... just kidding.
Grab your tablet and go to play store, install and launch the app "ex Dialer & Contacts".
10. Dial *#*#3646633#*#* or easier, *#*#ENGMODE#*#*
11. Go to Connectivity -> CDS Information -> Network Utility
12. type the following command:
My advice to you: copy and paste it from the browser on your tablet, because dependent on which keyboard app installed, this can be freakin tricky. In the next step you will learn, why it's so important why this command should be correct.
13. Tap on Run. You won't get a feedback, so you will never no if the entered command runs properly or not. That's why you should make sure the command is ok.
Now we started our telnet server on the tablet.
14. Back in the terminal type:
If you now get an error like couldn't find busybox or something, then either adb push in step 6 failed or you forgot step 8
15. Now enter:
You should get a bunch of lines, try to find a line containing

android 0x0000000026500000 0x00000000020e8000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p3

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

the bold word android is important. you should see it.
16. Now we create a dump of our system by entering:
copy and paste...
this cryptic command will take about 5 minutes until it's finished.
17. After it's finished we must make the image readable for adb, so we do:
and
18. Now leave the telnet session by
19. Now leave the adb shell by
20. Now we pull our image by
wait 1-2 minutes.
It should be then located in /home/bob/adt-bundle-linux-x86_64-20130219/sdk/platform-tools. It should be a .gz, so untar it and locate the system.img, which we move to /home/bob to make it less complicated.

21. Now we need to modify our system image by adding the tiny but helpful su binary. So first extract the SU binary, that you downloaded at the beginning to your home folder. Bob can find the binary now in /home/bob/su-bin-3.1.1-arm-signed/system/bin. to make it less complicated we move the binary to /home/bob.
22. We create a folder where we will mount our system image to. To create it do:
23. Now we mount it:
24. Now we copy our SU binary to our mounted system image:
25. the su binary needs to have the proper rights to make it usable, so we 'suid' it with:
26. Let's unmount our baby by:
and because bob doesn't like a messed up system, he does:
because he hopefully won't need it anymore.
27. We have to gzip it again to bring it back to where it belongs to. this we do by:

28. So here we are now, we made it to the final Boss fight! The next steps are dangerous and should be performed with caution. We copy back our modified system image, which can brick your device, if you do a mistake!
First cd back to the platform tools folder, Bob does:
29. then enter adb shell again:
30. Remove the old boring image:
31. Leave adb shell
32. copy our cool new system image containing the su binary:
33. Usually the telnet server on the tablet is still running, at least in my case it's been like that. That's why we can directly enter adb shell again:
34. Connect to the telnet server with:
If this doesn't work, then obviously your telnet server isn't running anymore. So on your tablet where the cryptic command is still entered (see step 12), tap on Run again and repeat step 34.
35. Now this is the most dangerous step in this how to ( no it wasn't the mkdir one ). Copy this command to make sure everything is fine and paste it into your telnet session on your linux terminal:
After 1-2 minutes you're done, if your tablet or pc or yourself didn't catch fire everythings fine.
36. Leave telnet / adb shell / terminal by doing
37. Unplug your tablet from pc
38. Reboot the Iconia Tablet.
39. Install Superuser ( No, not SuperSU, cause it won't work! )
40. Be lucky. Your tablet and thus you are now free.

quickstyler said:

I opened mine to take a look inside (because I wanted to massage dead pixel)

It's easy to open...just put in a flat plastic or screwdriver on the side and open it to the usb connection - i do not recommend to open it on the top because the part where the audiojack is cracking easy...

I was first very disappointed about the fact that there is no vibration but I think the round thingy above the QR-Code is a vibration module. it's connected to "JP19"

The antennas (GPS+WiFi) are very cheap charlie...

3.7V 2710mAh Battery - Think you can find a easy replacement for that...

maybe free usb slot? idk
nice prework from acer here

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Can you upload the images somewhere else? I can't load them.

And just to put the info out there:

To enter recovery, hold "power " and "volume up" while the tablet is off. A boot menu will appear allowing you to choose between recovery and fastboot. In recovery, there is a "backup and restore user data" function, which we might be able to exploit somehow, but the backup format is proprietary.

EDIT: The "kernel" source posted by acer doesn't look like it contains everything needed to build a working kernel. At the very least, it's missing a default configuration. There are also other folders outside of the kernel source and it seems... fragmented. The archive does contain the default ramdisk though and it does allow us to look at a few things. One is that the init no longer loads "/data/local.prop", so even if we figure out the backup format for the recovery, we might not be able to exploit it for rooting.