ROOT with PIE Guide

[chpimentelpr]

Hi All,

In the best interest to provide clarity I'm creating this quick and easy tutorial on how to root your Razer Phone 2 after the Pie Upgrade. Please send me any feedback to improve this post, we need to build up a strong community.

*As usual, I'm not responsible of any damage or brick to your phone, do it at your own risk.

Pre-Requirements:

-Be sure to have at least 70% of charges... or plug your phone to power
-Backup anything you consider important
-Already installed Pie Upgrade via OTA or Side Loaded​

-Enable Developer Options

• Open Phone "Settings" and scroll down.
• You will see an option "Build Number".
• Simply tap on it 7 times to enable it on your Android Oreo based device.
• Your device immediately display a message on screen that will say "You are now a developer".
• The Developer Option is now available in the Settings>System>Developer Options. Enjoy!​

- Install Android Drivers (https://developer.android.com/studio/run/win-usb) and ADB, I personally recommend -[TOOL]Minimal ADB and Fastboot [2-9-18] - https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2317790

-Unlock Bootloader

• To enable OEM unlock, go to Settings > Developer options and check Enable OEM unlock
• Using ADB commands reboot on bootloader​

adb reboot bootloader​

• After reboot completes follow phone menus and select "UNLOCK BOOTLOADER"; accept all warnings, after restart you have completed the unlock.​

Root and Installing Magisk
Since our phone doesn't have a proven customer recovery fully working (Ex TWRP) Magisk needs to be installed by manually patching the device boot image.

Making leverage of Warrior1988 post [Root Magisk Pie Update For Unlocked Devices] all credits to him. Download the image from his post

• Boot in fastboot mode To boot into fastboot, press and hold the Power button + Volume Down Keys for few seconds; Copy the image on the same folder as your ADB and Run the following commands:

fastboot flash boot_a boot.img

fastboot flash boot_b boot.img

fastboot reboot​

Install Magisk Download the apk and install it as usual on your RP2, that should be all.

DONE!!!! You now have a unleashed the beast! Please send me any recommendations to improved this guide.

 

[AbsoluteContingency]

Install Android Drivers and ADB

Your link has everything necessary for this step, right? Direct link to version 1.4.3 is here: https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=746010030569952951
Or are drivers and ADB two separate downloads?

• To enable OEM unlock, go to Settings > Developer options and check Enable OEM unlock

I assume this is where we plug our phone into our computer?

• Using ADB commands reboot on bootloader

For anyone dumb and new like me, I think this is with cmd.exe in Windows. Win+S -> type "cmd" (without quotation marks) and hit enter. Once open, you want to navigate to ADB, which you've already installed via the above instructions.

So your cmd will say:
C:\Users\YourName>

And you want to get to ADB, so you'll type "cd" (without quotation marks) which means you want to change directories, and then "cd adb" (if its in C:\ directory) or "cd [whatever the path is to the ADB folder]\adb"
Assuming it was directly in C:, you should see something like:
C:\adb>

Now you want to type "adb devices" to make sure it sees your phone is plugged in. You should see: "list of devices attached - [model] device" or something.

Now you're ready to go with the instructions starting at "adb reboot bootloader." If I'm wrong about this, someone less new and dumb than I am please correct me.

• Copy the image on the same folder as your ADB and Run the following commands:
fastboot flash*boot_a boot.img

fastboot flash boot_b boot.img

fastboot reboot

I'm confused on this one. The first one has "flash*boot_a," but the second one has "flash boot_b" without the * symbol. What does the * do, and what happens if we mess it up? Sorry if that's a dumb question.

 

[Warrior1988]

Your link has everything necessary for this step, right? Direct link to version 1.4.3 is here: https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=746010030569952951
Or are drivers and ADB two separate downloads?



I assume this is where we plug our phone into our computer?



For anyone dumb and new like me, I think this is with cmd.exe in Windows. Win+S -> type "cmd" (without quotation marks) and hit enter. Once open, you want to navigate to ADB, which you've already installed via the above instructions.

So your cmd will say:
C:\Users\YourName>

And you want to get to ADB, so you'll type "cd" (without quotation marks) which means you want to change directories, and then "cd adb" (if its in C:\ directory) or "cd [whatever the path is to the ADB folder]\adb"
Assuming it was directly in C:, you should see something like:
C:\adb>

Now you want to type "adb devices" to make sure it sees your phone is plugged in. You should see: "list of devices attached - [model] device" or something.

Now you're ready to go with the instructions starting at "adb reboot bootloader." If I'm wrong about this, someone less new and dumb than I am please correct me.



I'm confused on this one. The first one has "flash*boot_a," but the second one has "flash boot_b" without the * symbol. What does the * do, and what happens if we mess it up? Sorry if that's a dumb question.

fastboot flash boot_a boot.img

fastboot flash boot_b boot.img

fastboot reboot

 

[AbsoluteContingency]

fastboot flash boot_a boot.img

fastboot flash boot_b boot.img

fastboot reboot

No asterisk. Cool. Got it. Thank you, dude.

 

[chpimentelpr]

The drivers are the regular ones for android nothing specific, they can be downloaded from their SDK https://developer.android.com/studio/run/win-usb

 

[Bounty33]

App root detection?

If I root my Razer phone 2 using this guide, will certain apps like banking apps, and rideshare apps be able to detect root?

 

[chpimentelpr]

If I root my Razer phone 2 using this guide, will certain apps like banking apps, and rideshare apps be able to detect root?

You can use magisk to hide the root from those apps. In general banking app are not affected by root. Google pay could be affected, but I don't use it so can't be sure. And you can always unroot.

 

[chpimentelpr]

No asterisk. Cool. Got it. Thank you, dude.

Did you rooted? Anything missing on the guide? I want make it as useful as possible so feedback is welcome.

 

[AbsoluteContingency]

Did you rooted? Anything missing on the guide? I want make it as useful as possible so feedback is welcome.

I have not, but I've been really sick and useless. I think I'll try tonight and let you know how it goes. Thanks for the guide, dude.

---------- Post added at 02:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:45 PM ----------

Wait, yes, I do have a question. I download the drivers, and I download the Fastboot ADB thing. What do I do with the drivers? Do they just install in Windows like anything else, and that allows me to connect to the phone?

 

[chpimentelpr]

I have not, but I've been really sick and useless. I think I'll try tonight and let you know how it goes. Thanks for the guide, dude.

---------- Post added at 02:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:45 PM ----------

Wait, yes, I do have a question. I download the drivers, and I download the Fastboot ADB thing. What do I do with the drivers? Do they just install in Windows like anything else, and that allows me to connect to the phone?

Yes, install them as any other driver.

 

[ndragon798]

After rooting can you relock the boot loader or will that brick the phone?

 

[chpimentelpr]

After rooting can you relock the boot loader or will that brick the phone?

Not sure, but why you want to relock the boot.

 

[ndragon798]

Not sure, but why you want to relock the boot.

Mostly to get rid of the startup message

 

[Gamesoul Master]

Very nice. I've rooted a ton of phones over the years, but they had more established communities and had well-explained (and tested) methods of rooting. The previous guide posted (that you referenced) was fine enough, but it was very much lacking a couple prerequisites that I was wondering/concerned about. This guide has cleared all of that up for me, and I now feel confident about rooting this phone.

Just as soon as I charge up the phone and install the OTA I've been avoiding until now... lol. Hoping somebody will make a Magisk module to move the clock back to where it belongs (if they haven't already).


EDIT: Just wanted to add my success story to this. Only thing I had to do that wasn't listed in the instructions (but makes sense) is that fastboot didn't work until I enabled USB Debugging (again, after the wipe and reboot), and I had to very manually tell the computer which driver to use (ADB) after that. Didn't have that issue for the bootloader instructions beforehand (that time, the driver worked automatically), so I figured I'd mention it.

 

[ndragon798]

Not sure, but why you want to relock the boot.

Also is there a way to turn back on the preboot authentication. Pretty much I just want to maintain full encryption and the built in security while having root.

 

[chpimentelpr]

Also is there a way to turn back on the preboot authentication. Pretty much I just want to maintain full encryption and the built in security while having root.

I don't believe encryption is supported at the moment, and I don't encourage you to try it until TWRP is fully supported since you may end up in a boot loop. I'm eagerly waiting for the full encryption capability, so I will let you know as soon as something come up.

 

[ChronosTrigger]

This has to be......one of the most usefull and noob friendly guides i have ever seen.....

You sir....are a God

Thank You.

 

[chpimentelpr]

This has to be......one of the most usefull and noob friendly guides i have ever seen.....

You sir....are a God

Thank You.

i'm glad it helps.

 

[xttweaponttx]

Alright so after fighting with windows for a few hours, I discovered that my ADB was severely outdated.... Lesson learned there.

After getting the new boot image installed, though, I hit another problem... WiFi refuses to work. The toggle switch in the statusbar, nor the toggle in the system settings, will bring my wifi to life. Which is weird! Because I got through setup just fine, connected to wifi and signed into google... Yet now all wifi functionality has vanished. I tried a factory reset, to no avail. I'm gonna have to restore the factory boot image and start all over... But for now, figured I'd ask if anyone else has run into this weird bug?

***update***
I've now gone and flashed the global image for 8.1.0 to the phone... and it's telling me the OS is up to date???? How do I get back to pie?? It's late here and I've got wifi back now... but I'm stumped. Any help would be so greatly appreciated!

 

[chpimentelpr]

Alright so after fighting with windows for a few hours, I discovered that my ADB was severely outdated.... Lesson learned there.

After getting the new boot image installed, though, I hit another problem... WiFi refuses to work. The toggle switch in the statusbar, nor the toggle in the system settings, will bring my wifi to life. Which is weird! Because I got through setup just fine, connected to wifi and signed into google... Yet now all wifi functionality has vanished. I tried a factory reset, to no avail. I'm gonna have to restore the factory boot image and start all over... But for now, figured I'd ask if anyone else has run into this weird bug?

***update***
I've now gone and flashed the global image for 8.1.0 to the phone... and it's telling me the OS is up to date???? How do I get back to pie?? It's late here and I've got wifi back now... but I'm stumped. Any help would be so greatly appreciated!

I doubt the issue with the wifi is related with the image, since it doesn't have anything to do with it. If your phone doesn't detect the update you will need to sideload it. Then try the root guide again. Let us know how it goes, it the first time I hear something wrong with WIFI after rooting.