Root Getting the 4

[zuben el genub]

On its way according to Google.
I want to root it. I've never had a non-carrier, new phone. The Nexus S was bought used, the SGS4G from TMO.

I rooted both. Now the question is what is the first step? Do I root before even setting up a Google account on the phone?

I have CWM and ROM manager already. I also have TB and have saved all to the computer. Once rooted, what will happen if I use TB to restore all the apps? Did it back up those utilities, too?

What will happen to some apps I have never updated? I haven't updated GMail itself, as I prefer Aquamail via IMAP. The old version is probably in TB, but the new version would be in Gapps. What happens?

I saw a mention of WUG?
Which other ROM besides CM has a printable wiki or instructions?
I prefer a printed sheet with instructions while rooting rather than trying to go back to certain instructions on a video.

I'll read if I get pointed in the right direction.

I ordered the 16G as that's what I have now and am pushing - over 13G used. (Mostly large databases)

Thanks

 

[jmar]

On its way according to Google.
I want to root it. I've never had a non-carrier, new phone. The Nexus S was bought used, the SGS4G from TMO.

I rooted both. Now the question is what is the first step? Do I root before even setting up a Google account on the phone?

I have CWM and ROM manager already. I also have TB and have saved all to the computer. Once rooted, what will happen if I use TB to restore all the apps? Did it back up those utilities, too?

What will happen to some apps I have never updated? I haven't updated GMail itself, as I prefer Aquamail via IMAP. The old version is probably in TB, but the new version would be in Gapps. What happens?

I saw a mention of WUG?
Which other ROM besides CM has a printable wiki or instructions?
I prefer a printed sheet with instructions while rooting rather than trying to go back to certain instructions on a video.

I'll read if I get pointed in the right direction.

I ordered the 16G as that's what I have now and am pushing - over 13G used. (Mostly large databases)

Thanks

Hey there. I just got my N4 yesterday. I rooted it shortly after getting home from the store. Got mine at T-Mobile.

Here is how I did it.

I went to goo.im and downloaded supersu v1.25. Then I downloaded the latest touch version of cwm recovery from here: http://www.clockworkmod.com/rommanager. I used cwm recovery only for the initial rooting process because upon first exit from recovery after flashing it over stock it will delete a file that would otherwise override cwm recovery.

So now you have the two files you need. I recommend renaming each to su.zip and recovery.img, respectively.

Now turn on your phone and skip as much of the setup as you care to.

Go into settings about phone and tap build number to unlock developer options. It will now appear above build number. Go to developer settings and turn on USB debugging.

Now make sure your environment is set. So latest SDK is critical. I believe there is a mini SDK in the sticky. You need this to send some simple commands to the phone.

With the phone on, plug it into the computer.

Open a terminal and CD to your platform-tools folder, where the fastboot and adb utilities live.

Now type: adb reboot bootloader

Once in boot loader type: fastboot oem unlock

On your device will be a warning. Ignore or read. Up to you. Press volume up then power button to complete unlocking of bootloader. This will wipe the device completely. After you unlock, the boot loader reboots and you are ready to flash recovery.

Now type: fastboot flash recovery /directory of recovery/recovery.IMG

Now press volume up twice and choose recovery by pressing the power button.

While in recovery, we need to push the su.zip to the internal storage.

To do this type: adb push /location of su/su.zip /sdcard/0/Downloads

Now reboot recovery under advanced. Cwm recovery should prompt you to let it prevent it from being rewritten by stock recovery. Let it.

Now flash su.zip. it will be located in sdcard/0/Downloads

Flash it and you'll be unlocked and rooted!

Hope this helps!

 

[lunatic59]

I used the Nexus 4 Toolkit. Couldn't have been easier. There are a couple of gotchas with the stock recovery trying to overwrite CWM that you'll need to disable, but it's all taken care of for you in the toolkit. During updates, I've answered the question wrong and had to reflash CWM a couple of times. No big deal, just a pain in the butt.

 

[D-U-R-X]

The N4 was really easy to root... as luna says, use the toolkit

 

[jmar]

You guys are a bunch of n00bs.

I just like getting my hands dirty and when super user doesn't push to the SD for no friggin' reason, I get to yell at my little 'nix box. :vroam:

 

[D-U-R-X]

lol... I wanted to root it manually but, given how busy life is for me at the moment, I took the easy option