[Q] Rooting 4.4.2 Unlocked Bootloader

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TheSaw

Senior Member
Dec 24, 2010
975
437
Cluj
This might be crystal clear for most of you, but I will ask this to avoid any unwanted scenarios. Coming from a SGS2, I flashed almost anything without worrying, but I see lots of people bricking their phones here, so I'd like to be on the safe side with this.

How do I root my Moto X with 4.4.2 and unlocked bootloader?

I've read a couple of articles, where they casually mention to flash TWRP, and then SuperSu, and that's it. I can't find a TWRP 4.4.2, only 4.4. Will that work?
I'm also reading the "The Complete Moto X Guides/Information Thread", where under "Unlocked bootloader" there are some instructions, which seem a bit... complicated. Should I follow those?

Thanks guys! :silly:
 

droib

Member
Feb 8, 2011
21
5
This might be crystal clear for most of you, but I will ask this to avoid any unwanted scenarios. Coming from a SGS2, I flashed almost anything without worrying, but I see lots of people bricking their phones here, so I'd like to be on the safe side with this.

How do I root my Moto X with 4.4.2 and unlocked bootloader?

I've read a couple of articles, where they casually mention to flash TWRP, and then SuperSu, and that's it. I can't find a TWRP 4.4.2, only 4.4. Will that work?
I'm also reading the "The Complete Moto X Guides/Information Thread", where under "Unlocked bootloader" there are some instructions, which seem a bit... complicated. Should I follow those?

Thanks guys! :silly:

That's good you did the reading first!

According to the TWRP thread, version 2.6.3.1 (by posted Hashcode) works fine for 4.4.2. Look for the thread in the "Android Development" section with the green square before the thread title. I know it's long but you really should read through the whole thread to get a feel for what people have been doing wrong, etc. For example, you NEED to flash it with Moto's fastboot.exe (often called mfastboot but it's not actually called that when you download it from Moto).

The guide you are referring to seems fine, except the mfastboot command assumes you changed the name of the Moto fastboot executable to mfastboot...

I don't mean to be one of those trolls around here but if the guide seems too complicated, I would encourage you to wait for Moto to release the SBF files for 4.4.2 before rooting. I say this because, without those files, things could get tricky of you're not an expert (I'm not) and you do something wrong. When those files come out, you can follow the simple guide on the Moto site for returning your phone completely to factory specs, should you mess up /system or something.

I'm actually doing what I'm recommending to you. I'm confident I wouldn't mess things up but on the other hand this is my only phone, I'm too poor to replace it, and I'm living abroad so sending it back would be tricky.

[EDIT]: By SBF I mean either the real SBF or the package you can download from the Motorola "return to factory" page. I'm not actually sure if they are the same thing or not as I haven't downloaded. But you don't need RSDLite for them...
 
Last edited:

TheSaw

Senior Member
Dec 24, 2010
975
437
Cluj
That's good you did the reading first!

According to the TWRP thread, version 2.6.3.1 (by posted Hashcode) works fine for 4.4.2. Look for the thread in the "Android Development" section with the [...]

Hey, thanks for the detailed answer! I'm in a very similar situation to yours. I live in Europe, so returning the phone is not an option, and I don't want to brake it either :).

I've flashed a lot of things on my old phone, so I can't say I'm a beginner, but some of these things are new to me, so I'm a bit cautious. For example: what are the SBF file? Those are not needed to root, they are only as backup, right?

If following those instructions correctly are 100% fail-proof, then I would try it.
 

droib

Member
Feb 8, 2011
21
5
Hey, thanks for the detailed answer! I'm in a very similar situation to yours. I live in Europe, so returning the phone is not an option, and I don't want to brake it either :).

I've flashed a lot of things on my old phone, so I can't say I'm a beginner, but some of these things are new to me, so I'm a bit cautious. For example: what are the SBF file? Those are not needed to root, they are only as backup, right?

If following those instructions correctly are 100% fail-proof, then I would try it.

Given your experience I don't think there is any real chance of phone death by following those instructions. The issue is, as you say, backup, or what happens AFTER you successfully root. Motorola's SBF files are everything your phone needs to go back to stock, and 4.4.2 is not available yet. So for example if you were on 4.4 and you corrupted something important like your partition table, you could just go to Motorola's website, request the files for 4.4 and flash them all using fastboot (mfastboot as they say here) to get back to a pristine phone. Right now, you can make a recovery backup of /system, etc. right after rooting which SHOULD be fine for correcting OS tinkering errors, but you never know... People have posted on the possibility of flashing, for example, the 4.4 recovery.img on top of 4.4.2 in order get future OTAs, etc, but this sort of thing is very risky. Maybe it works or maybe you hard-brick.
 
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Restola

Senior Member
Dec 4, 2010
1,298
580
Michigan
This guide will work on 4.4.2 and has all the files you need to download. If you're already unlocked you can skip those steps of course

http://www.elementalxdesigns.com/ec...our-Moto-X-Developer-Edition-and-install-TWRP

It doesn't tell you how to root, but when you exit TWRP it will ask "would you like to install supersu?" so select yes. Once you're in Android go to Google play and download supersu from the market. Open it and it will ask if you want to install binaries. Select yes and the twrp/cwm option. Your phone will reboot then you're done
 
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Cozume

Senior Member
Jan 30, 2014
429
97
This might be crystal clear for most of you, but I will ask this to avoid any unwanted scenarios. Coming from a SGS2, I flashed almost anything without worrying, but I see lots of people bricking their phones here, so I'd like to be on the safe side with this.

How do I root my Moto X with 4.4.2 and unlocked bootloader?

I've read a couple of articles, where they casually mention to flash TWRP, and then SuperSu, and that's it. I can't find a TWRP 4.4.2, only 4.4. Will that work?
I'm also reading the "The Complete Moto X Guides/Information Thread", where under "Unlocked bootloader" there are some instructions, which seem a bit... complicated. Should I follow those?

Thanks guys! :silly:
Follow these instructions with clickable links to TWRP and SuperSU

Step-By-Step Instructions for Unlocking and Rooting a Moto X Dev Ed

works for both 4.4 and 4.4.2.
 
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TheSaw

Senior Member
Dec 24, 2010
975
437
Cluj
Okay, I have rooted my phone. I've read several articles on the subject, and this is the easiest method I've found to do it:

1) Put device in bootloader mode while not connected to PC using the buttons (Volume Down + Power);
2) Connect device to PC using USB cord;
3) mfastboot flash recovery twrp-2.6.3.1-ghost-4.4.img
4) fastboot reboot-bootloader
5) Disconnect device from PC;
6) Then get into recovery mode by pressing the Volume Down button to highlight recovery mode and then pressing the Volume Up button to select the recovery mode; and
7) You should now have booted into the Team Win Recovery Project custom recovery. Click on Install to install SuperSu. Scroll down to find the sdcard and select it. Then scroll down to download and select it. Select the SuperSU zip file and swipe to install.

After you downloaded the files needed for this from here (make sure they're not outdated, if you're reading this somewhere in the future), you can just follow these steps for a quick root access. UNLOCKED BOOTLOADER ONLY.
 

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    Hey, thanks for the detailed answer! I'm in a very similar situation to yours. I live in Europe, so returning the phone is not an option, and I don't want to brake it either :).

    I've flashed a lot of things on my old phone, so I can't say I'm a beginner, but some of these things are new to me, so I'm a bit cautious. For example: what are the SBF file? Those are not needed to root, they are only as backup, right?

    If following those instructions correctly are 100% fail-proof, then I would try it.

    Given your experience I don't think there is any real chance of phone death by following those instructions. The issue is, as you say, backup, or what happens AFTER you successfully root. Motorola's SBF files are everything your phone needs to go back to stock, and 4.4.2 is not available yet. So for example if you were on 4.4 and you corrupted something important like your partition table, you could just go to Motorola's website, request the files for 4.4 and flash them all using fastboot (mfastboot as they say here) to get back to a pristine phone. Right now, you can make a recovery backup of /system, etc. right after rooting which SHOULD be fine for correcting OS tinkering errors, but you never know... People have posted on the possibility of flashing, for example, the 4.4 recovery.img on top of 4.4.2 in order get future OTAs, etc, but this sort of thing is very risky. Maybe it works or maybe you hard-brick.
    1
    This guide will work on 4.4.2 and has all the files you need to download. If you're already unlocked you can skip those steps of course

    http://www.elementalxdesigns.com/ec...our-Moto-X-Developer-Edition-and-install-TWRP

    It doesn't tell you how to root, but when you exit TWRP it will ask "would you like to install supersu?" so select yes. Once you're in Android go to Google play and download supersu from the market. Open it and it will ask if you want to install binaries. Select yes and the twrp/cwm option. Your phone will reboot then you're done
    1
    This still works to root if your bootloader is already unlocked -> https://plus.google.com/110773150384694258853/posts/VhtJtg92sTP

    Now there is a newer version of SuperSU. See this thread -> http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1538053 and use the link for the CWM / TWRP / MobileODIN installable ZIP.
    1
    This might be crystal clear for most of you, but I will ask this to avoid any unwanted scenarios. Coming from a SGS2, I flashed almost anything without worrying, but I see lots of people bricking their phones here, so I'd like to be on the safe side with this.

    How do I root my Moto X with 4.4.2 and unlocked bootloader?

    I've read a couple of articles, where they casually mention to flash TWRP, and then SuperSu, and that's it. I can't find a TWRP 4.4.2, only 4.4. Will that work?
    I'm also reading the "The Complete Moto X Guides/Information Thread", where under "Unlocked bootloader" there are some instructions, which seem a bit... complicated. Should I follow those?

    Thanks guys! :silly:
    Follow these instructions with clickable links to TWRP and SuperSU

    Step-By-Step Instructions for Unlocking and Rooting a Moto X Dev Ed

    works for both 4.4 and 4.4.2.