[HOW TO] Unlock Bootloader & Root GSM Nexus (4.0.x devices only)

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Evostance

Evostance

Senior Member
Nov 27, 2008
1,511
332
www.greghesp.com
SkitzoDelic

SkitzoDelic

Senior Member
Oct 20, 2008
171
3
Almere
Normal reboot wont work, i have to use CMD and Super boot every single time.

Is this normal?

If not, how can i change this.
 
Evostance

Evostance

Senior Member
Nov 27, 2008
1,511
332
www.greghesp.com
SkitzoDelic said:
I meant, just restart the phone and it will boot again.

Everytime if my device is completly turned off, i cant just start it go into Android.

I gets stuck on the google Splash screen.

I have to start it with Superboot and CMD in the bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Sounds like something got corrupt. How long you leaving it to boot?

Try flashing back the stock stuff

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
 
G

GuestK0080

Guest
This is weird. Got the OTA 4.0.2 alert last night. Figured id wait until this morning so i could re-root. OTA worked fine and i lost root as expected. Fastboot the insecure boot image and it hangs on the google unlock screen. Tried again...no dice. Tried the superboot image instead this time. Still hangs on the unlock screen...or it appeared to anyway. For grins i tried adb devices command and it worked. Adb root command says running as root. Wtf? So i re rooted manually and all is well. I thought i remember the insecure boot images actually appearing to boot normally and not sit at the Google unlock screen?
 
eighty1

eighty1

Senior Member
Apr 8, 2009
1,552
39
Atlanta
4.0.2

Just purchased my phone today and I want to root but its asking me to update. Should I update or wait because it seems to be an slight issue with gaining root on 4.0.2?
 
G

GuestK0080

Guest
dscottjr81 said:
Just purchased my phone today and I want to root but its asking me to update. Should I update or wait because it seems to be an slight issue with gaining root on 4.0.2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

You will have to regain root after the update anyway. I had root before the update. Needed to root again after update. It does work. Search the other superboot root method thread as well.
 
mikeacela

mikeacela

Senior Member
Jun 21, 2010
401
19
We have achieved root :D
i had no idea how to operate mac terminal coming from windows but after a few hours, It works xD. Also at first for some reason it wouldn't install th boot.img but think it was because i was trying to install super boot r2 on the 4.0.2 so when i updated it to the r3, root!
 
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ggeralds

Senior Member
Nov 13, 2009
218
34
Let mine sit at the Google splash screen for about ten minutes. Pulled the battery. Restarted with no drama. We Have ROOT! Thanks so much for this......
 
Al Asmi

Al Asmi

Senior Member
Feb 10, 2008
267
126
Hi,

Thanks for the great thread. I did unlock my SGN in no time, had no USB drives issues but:

when trying to root the device it gets stuck at the splash screen forever, i have tried it so many times and seems that nothing is happening. I have to remove the battery and power on the device to get it to work again. The superuser icon is there, giving permissions to programs but programs when executed tells me that i have no root permission???????

I'm on ICL53F and have flashed the rom and tried many times to root it but still getting the same issue.

Can you please help solve this problem, I have read all the thread and seems many had the same problem but non answered their inquiries.

---------- Post added 21st December 2011 at 12:07 AM ---------- Previous post was 20th December 2011 at 11:17 PM ----------
Al Asmi said:
Hi,

Thanks for the great thread. I did unlock my SGN in no time, had no USB drives issues but:

when trying to root the device it gets stuck at the splash screen forever, i have tried it so many times and seems that nothing is happening. I have to remove the battery and power on the device to get it to work again. The superuser icon is there, giving permissions to programs but programs when executed tells me that i have no root permission???????

I'm on ICL53F and have flashed the rom and tried many times to root it but still getting the same issue.

Can you please help solve this problem, I have read all the thread and seems many had the same problem but non answered their inquiries.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Problem Solved!!!

Had to reflash to stock, lock the device again, restart, turned it off, went to bootloader and unlock it again(dont restart here), root the device and there i go. did't stuck at the splash screen, the device was rooting then restarted normally with root and superuser installed.
 
J

jzone

New member
Jul 2, 2007
2
0
Lahore
I've tried the exact same steps but now my nexus doesn't recognize SIM and show dialogue with 'SIM network unlock PIN'. What should i do?
 
sert00

sert00

Senior Member
May 28, 2011
1,091
496
cesena,IT
ok,galaxy nexus bought yesterday,right now i'm unlocked,rooted and cwm'ed!very good tutorial and so simple procedure!thanks!:p
now let's see the custom roms...:D
 
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    Evostance
    Evostance
    I know there a few tutorials already on here, however it seems quite a lot of people are eitiher asking questions about the ADB method, or cannot understand other methods. So i'll try and put it all in one easy to follow tutorial. This is for the latest version on Android 4.0.x.

    For this method we are going to use Paul O'Briens Superboot.

    Superboot is a boot.img that when booted, will root your device the first time you boot (installing su and the superuser APK). No need to flash any partitions, no need to mess around with ADB, no messing with the contents of your data partition, no overwriting the shipped ROM on your device, just boot the boot image using the instructions below and you're done!
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    APPLY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!

    Download the latest version of Superboot: DOWNLOAD

    You might need the drivers, however its worth getting them anyway as you'll probably need them in the future: DOWNLOAD DRIVERS

    If you get you might need the USB drivers: DOWNLOAD

    Windows

    1) Extract the contents of the above file into C:\root

    2) Power your device off

    3) Connect your phone to your computer

    4) Put device into the bootloader by holding down Vol Up + Vol Down + Power

    5) Open up cmd and navigate to by typing to following (Hit enter after each line):
    cd C:/
    cd root

    6) Unlock your bootloader by typing - this will wipe your device!:
    fastboot-windows oem unlock

    7) You should get a warning on your phone. Use the volume keys to select an option, and press the power button to confirm it

    8) Your bootloader should now say that it is unlocked at the bottom

    9) To root your device, double click:
    install-superboot-windows.bat

    10) You should now be able to reboot your phone and it will have root

    11) Optional: Install CWM from here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1357642
    Make a Nandroid Backup!
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse


    Linux

    1) Extract the contents of the above file into a folder

    2) Power your device off

    3) Connect your phone to your computer

    4) Put device into the bootloader by holding down Vol Up + Vol Down + Power

    5) Open up terminal and navigate to the folder used in step 1

    6) Unlock your bootloader by typing - this will wipe your device!:
    ./fastboot-linux oem unlock

    7) You should get a warning on your phone. Use the volume keys to select an option, and press the power button to confirm it

    8) Your bootloader should now say that it is unlocked at the bottom

    9) To root your device, type the following (Hit enter after each line):
    chmod +x install-superboot-linux.sh
    ./install-superboot-linux.sh

    10) You should now be able to reboot your phone and it will have root

    11) Optional: Install CWM from here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1357642
    Make a Nandroid Backup!
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse


    OS X

    1) Extract the contents of the above file into a folder

    2) Power your device off

    3) Connect your phone to your computer

    4) Put device into the bootloader by holding down Vol Up + Vol Down + Power

    5) Open up terminal and navigate to the folder used in step 1

    6) Unlock your bootloader by typing - this will wipe your device!:
    ./fastboot-mac oem unlock

    7) You should get a warning on your phone. Use the volume keys to select an option, and press the power button to confirm it

    8) Your bootloader should now say that it is unlocked at the bottom

    9) To root your device, type the following (Hit enter after each line):
    chmod +x install-superboot-mac.sh
    ./install-superboot-mac.sh

    10) You should now be able to reboot your phone and it will have root

    11) Optional: Install CWM from here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1357642
    Make a Nandroid Backup!
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    If i've missed any steps out such as downloading drivers etc, let me know what to add in etc. I did mine on OS X and it didn't require me to install anything extra

    Update: it would appear some people are having issues with 4.1 rooting. I'll see what I can find an then update it. For the time being, just reflash the vanilla install and you should be fine. I'd imagine there's an incompatibility between this root and 4.1
    View
    8
    J
    jms.flynn
    I swear to god I am going insane, I am having the same issue as mrvirginia. I am in bootloader but my base unit, laptop or brothers pc will not recognise my Galaxy Nexus. I have uninstalled the samsung drivers and reinstalled but nothing. Just showing up as android 1.0, when the phone is on however it is showing as Samsung Android ADB interface.

    I give up, any help?
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    OK figured it out, if anybody else had this issue. For some reason when my device was connected I had to connect my phone in bootloader and then right click on the Android 1.0 unknown device in device manager and select update driver, then browse my computer, then let me pick from a list of device drivers, then select Samsung and then select android ADB interface.

    Works, Weird :/ I am on Windows 64bit if this helps.

    Hope this helps somebody.
    View
    3
    sean1984
    sean1984
    jdiddy_ub said:
    i found the directions in the OP...everything seemed to work...i rebooted had superuser in my list of app...but i cant grant SU permissions to anything...i get no prompts and when i tried to update the binary it failed at gaining root permission

    can anyone help?
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    try the latest su from here http://goo.im/superuser/Superuser-3.0.7-efghi-signed.zip
    View
    2
    DJ "suMo*
    DJ "suMo*
    mohitrocks said:
    EDIT 2: Before I right clicked the exclamation point in device manager, went to update driver software, browse my computer, browse, and then went to the folder: "usb_driver" and from then on it didn't work. Am I supposed to navigate to a different folder? Please tell me ASAP, as I want to confirm that it is the right folder before I continue with anything and use the last possible computer that I have.

    Update: Okay, I went ahead and clicked usb_driver and I get the same error for the third time on three computers: " 'fastboot-windows' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. Do I need to download adb drivers or something?

    ---------- Post added at 01:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:28 AM ----------

    Could somebody please help me? I want a UV'd kernel or at least a battery concious rom for tomorrow!
    EDIT: Okay, it isn't displaying the message its supposed to display:
    C:\Users\Bob> cd C:/
    C:\>cd root
    C:\root>fastboot-windows oem unlock
    'fatboot-windows' is not recognized as an internal or external command operable program or batch file.
    C:\root>
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    Put your device into fastboot mode (power off phone then volume up & down + power same time), then plug USB cable into your phone from computer. Go into device manager on your computer with your phone in fastboot mode and it should have USB device with exclamation point. Click on it, go to driver, then update and choose that USB drivers folder. You should be good to go.

    Sent from my GN
    View
    2
    M
    matt2053
    chandlerweb said:
    Are the files from Peter Alfonso not suitable? They include boot.img, recovery.img, system.img and userdata.img

    I want to uninstall clockwork mod and get back to stock recovery. I used Peter Alfonso's recovery.img file and did a "fastboot boot recovery.img" but I just got a picture of a droid with a red triangle. I was hoping that would work before I issued the "fastboot flash recovery recovery.img" command. As it didnt, I guess I'll have to wait to find out what the proper method is.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    The Droid with triangle actually is stock recovery. When you see it just press power + volume down.

    Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
    View

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