You won't need to root, but you will need ADB access to the device to utilize the fastboot tool. I put a walkthrough (attached) together from all the information I've gathered on the web. I take no credit for any of the information in the .pdf, all I did was piece together the different things I've found in a way that I could best understand. It starts with getting ADB access (installing SDK, drivers, etc), flashing OpenEtna's 2.2 firmware, downgrading current firmware if you don't have fastboot, and also a guide to root the device (however if you flash to OpenEtna I believe it's already rooted, at least Superuser is already installed. Feel free to correct me if this isn't correct)