I'm trying to root the
LG Exalt LTE, or LG VN220, from Verizon. Initially, I've attempted the common rooting kits, such as KingoRoot as well as the tools described around XDA. However all failed. I suspect the cause to be the restrictive permissions of
/data/local/tmp, which prevents execution of binaries. I believe any kit using this location will likely fail to achieve anything.
As such, I've been looking to achieve the same using manual techniques. The first step, as in most rooting activity is to put the device into USB debugging mode. To do this on the VN220, first compose
##7764726220. When asked for a service code, use
000000 to access a special menu. Select the
Developer Options >
USB Debugging and select
On. There is an additional menu below named
Select USB configuration, from which you can select
Media Transfer Protocol or
RNDIS among other options.
With that done, you can verify that you can now communicate with the device via ADB. To do so, download the
Minimal ADB and Fastboot bundle. While I was successful in querying the device with ADB with
Trying to use
fastboot simply outputs
"< waiting for device >" indefinitively. It is also possible to open a shell using ADB, however attempting ADB with root will fail. I don't think this is caused by having wrong drivers, as all the other tools could detect the phone (see below), but rather a permission issue.
From there, I've try to boot in different modes, which are accessible by turning off the phone, and then powering up the device while holding the
Volume Down button. This will boot into a white screen with some options, including the "Safe Mode" option which I attempted. The second mode is the "Firmware Upgrade" mode which is accessible by again, powering down the phone and powering it up again, but this time holding the
Volume Up for 3 seconds.
Attempting to run the following fails:
That being said, I later found out that LG does provides a legitimate way to unlock the bootloader via their LG developer portal. Unfortunately the VN220 is not in the list of supported devices, nor does the
procedure given applies to this phone. Additionally, it requires the device ID which fails also since it requires
fastboot:
The other attempt I've tried is using the
LG Mobile Support Too l and while it was useful to obtain the KDZ file from their website, it also failed to apply the update.
LGUP didn't recognise the model. (Note that both requires the USB mode to be RNDIS to detect the phone)
Trying to run apps from the internal storage such as
su or even using the
chmod command only results in "
Operation not permitted" messages. So even temporary root seems rather difficult.
At this point, I'd like to know if anyone has any advice on additional things I could try to root the phone, or even have temporary root.
Thanks in advance
@cyberrecce
